Two goats pick at leaves from bushes on a hillside in Spokane. “Browsing” animals like goats will eat plants cows or sheep ignore. The goats also love to climb, making them a strong candidate for clearing brush and broadleaf plants on steep terrain.
On a late July morning on a rocky slope near Spokane, Washington, Craig Madsen is watching his goats attack snowberry bushes, hawthorn and Oregon grape.
Madsen owns a company that rents goats for a variety of regional jobs. Today, that job is to remove brush that could act as a carrier fuel for wildfires and threaten a nearby home. The homeowners use a tractor to clear fuel in other areas, Madsen said, but that doesn’t work on the hill…