If you notice a herd of goats grazing through the Malibu hills, don’t think your neighbors have developed an obsession with birria, the savory Mexican goat dish.
These ungulates are part of an innovative local fire suppression effort.
By Paul M. J. Suchecki / Special to The Malibu Times
It’s the height of fire season. Although rains were just about normal last winter, brush dried prematurely because of early heat. Each day, some part of the Southland seems ablaze on local television.
As Malibu resident Dr. Ernest Masler put it, “When it came to facing a fire that would threaten my own home, the possibility seemed so distant, I didn’t give it much thought.”
It changed for him in November of 1993.
“I went to work in the Valley that morning,” Masler recalled. “While having lunch with a friend, I heard something about a fire in Malibu, but thought that when it came to my house, it can’t happen, won’t happen.”
Finally, he decided to leave his practice early and head home. He found himself driving through clouds of falling soot, staring at flames that licked skyward, inhaling smoke and ash, only getting through as a resident of Rambla Vista.
“When the fire roared over a ridge, there was tremendous wind generated by the blaze. It was an awesome sight,” he said. “I didn’t believe there was any danger to my home, because it was set far back from the woods. Still we were ordered out of the house.”
Masler’s daughter was about to be married. He and his family grabbed what they could, including her wedding dress, formal attire for the wedding and a few keepsakes, mostly pictures. Packing both cars full, they didn’t take any valuables. The Maslers fled to Pacific Coast Highway and headed to Santa Monica to stay with their daughter. She called while they were driving.
“She said she had just seen the house burn down on TV. There was nothing now but ruins, total devastation, nothing left.”
They would never rebuild.
That Malibu / Topanga fire burned more than 17,000 acres. Three hundred structures were destroyed.
When Malibu resident Wolf Knauer’s home was threatened in the 1978 fire, he fought back.
“There was no protection from the fire department,” Knauer said. “My family and a few owners stayed to defend our homes. In those days, I had a shake roof, which caught fire. Once we put it out, we moved on to a neighbor’s home. Although the fire reached all the way to Broad Beach, on Horizon Hill not a single house was destroyed.”
With those scorching experiences behind them, Knauer and Masler joined a third Malibu denizen, Herb Kollisher, to form a group called “The Fire Safe Project” to prevent wildfires from spreading in their area. Knauer said they worried when, “We saw a wall of chaparral getting thicker in the Santa Monica National Recreation Area.” They tried to get the National Park Service to initiate controlled burns, used for years in parks like Yosemite to mimic the effects of natural fires that would clear out flammable underbrush. Although the group had a sympathetic hearing from lower echelons of the NPS and the secretary of the interior herself, the local park superintendent objected, reminding the trio of the 2005 controlled burn near Santa Fe that burst into a blaze consuming 350 acres.
Deputy Forester J. Lopez, with the Los Angeles County Fire Department, had the answer. With his help, the Malibu locals got a $53,000 grant from The Fire Safe Council to help thin vegetation and clean out dead brush and trees from private property on Horizon Hills.
Lopez took the time to evaluate which trees needed to be removed and which should be just trimmed. Since the project is voluntary, changes to every tree have to be negotiated with property owners as the group hikes parcel to parcel. A contractor has been hired to handle the cutting and hauling. Until now, the effort has focused on removing dead trees. More of the pruning will happen in the fall to minimize the danger of bark beetle infestation, which flourishes when trees suffer open wounds while the sap is running thickly, as it is now. Ultimately, trees will be trimmed to heights of seven to eight feet above the earth with branches thinned to the point where most flying embers will fall through to the ground.
That’s where the goats come in. Hugh and Sarah Bunton are the husband and wife team of goat herders who own the company “Nanny & Billy,” which rents the animals for brush clearance. Part of the grant money that Kollisher, Masler and Knauer received was used to rent the goats and set them to work clearing low-lying brush and grass. It’s not a clear cut, just a thinning. Because goats are so sure-footed, they are ideal for trimming gullies, thinning not only around the ravines but also in some of the steepest sections. The Buntons currently have 250 goats grazing the hills and terrain of Malibu.
Knauer observed, “Many communities could stand a lot of improvement in terms of fire safety. None of the new local residents have seen a full blown fire.”
He reminds his Malibu neighbors that in recent Southwest fires, the destruction has been quite selective. Homeowners who took the trouble to install fire resistant roofs and trim their property’s vegetation were largely spared. As Masler ruefully recalled, “I had never done any fire suppression until after I lost my own home.”
Grants are available from The Fire Safe Council to protect other areas. More information can be obtained by calling J. Lopez of the Los Angeles County Fire Department at 818.890.5783.