Highly effective, low maintenance fire prevention efforts are underway in the Monterey Peninsula, with the return of hundreds of goats.
On Monday, 320 goats, owned by Orinda-based Goats R Us, were delivered to Pebble Beach. The goats will eat away at the dense vegetation that grew over the wet, rainy winter.
"This year, there's a ton more vegetation," said Zephyr Oyarzun with Goats R Us. "This particular location, it's probably twice as thick, I think, as last year. The goats are moving a lot slower to move through the projects."
Goats are used over sheep because they will eat virtually anything. That includes the toxic poison oak, Italian thistle, genista and poison hemlock. While some of those plants may be hazardous to humans, they are not for goats. The hemlock creates an intoxicating effect in them.