Just last week this newsletter reported about a gel fire retardant that would last for months. It would seem the application to structures would be more useful than spraying on forest areas until the environmental affects have been tested and proven safe for the wildlife.
Meanwhile the local news reported that the state of North Carolina is using goat herds to reduce the dried under growth in the fire prone forest areas is being tested.
We could go back to the Colonial days and use sheep to keep lawns trimmed to replace the use of petroleum products to reduce CO2 generation.
A side benefit would be the reduction of noise from trimmers and blowers and reduction of bagged yard waste and plugged up water drains.
people/ researchers are figuring out that it is ineffective to use goats for such an endeavor. Case western reserve univ. (same college that the article quotes) tried using goats to "cut the grass" at a property that was donated to the univ. and used as gardens for students and locals.
you need a lot of goats to eat enough material to keep grasses/other non-woody vegetation at bay. it was found (although farmers already know this) that Goats or other ruminants will eat only the most tasty vegetation in a given pasture. many farmers that have a small herd or limited area will fence off a given amount of land to contain the livestock so that they will completely eat all of the vegetation. once the area is cleared to satisfaction, the livestock will then be moved to another contained area to do the same.
As for goats, one would need a lot of animals to control an area such as a forest for forest suppression. The next issue is to keep predators from killing your animals, as well as also offering supplemental grains for heathy livestock, not to mention the goats will eat the succulent greens way before dry vegetation.
bottom line, goats are not the answer. Proper forestry control is the answer such as removing dead trees and possibly selling for firewood or making some sort of material used for construction, as well as creating proper fire breaks thru the forests to stop the fires. I recall a govt. policy enacted to leave all dead vegetation in place to help keep wildlife habitat for many species that use it. the issues of such an idea is the reality that in the wild, its feast or famine. Many of the trees and even wildlife have adapted to these fires, such as seeds only opening after the pod has been heated, animals that live underground or even population control.
I find your reply strange. I was fairly young when a younger sister was born and was determined to be unable to have cows milk. My parents had a friend in North Carolina that raised goats. My step father borrowed 3, 1 male and 2 females. The females provided the milk and the male kept them producing milk for my sister.
My step father would stake them out in the wooded lot behind our house that had never been tended to. It was very dense. It took the 3 goats about 3 weeks to clear everything from new tree sprouts, poison ivy, thorns and every other kind of weed that would grow in the tidewater area, and the trees up to about 6 feet. If it was green or brown they would eat it. You could see thru the wooded lot for the first time.
Have you noticed that the middle east raise goats for milk and food on very limited resources. If left in one place for very long they will eat the bark off the trees to as high as they can reach. With several males with their sharp horn herd protection is not much of a problem.
If headers started in the spring and moved south in weekly waves the forest could be managed better than the normal method of cutting down the trees and paving the land creating water run offs to flood the areas below.
I would like to see some description of how a whole house fire blanket could be deployed and who would be responsible for the deployment. I imagine a blanket large enough to cover even a small ranch style house would be quite heavy to manage manually. Even if made in sections, each section would still have to be quite large.
Now that it's been shown experimentally to work what about the practical aspects of implementation?
a bunch of 8' by 8' welding blankets (don't really see them bigger than that). Using metal hooks or tie downs to keep them from flying away or just place a bunch of brick on them to keep it tight to the building. Roof is most important. Your siding would be best if it was Hardi plank or similar temperature resistant material.
We have a similar problem up in WA state on the east side. High winds and dry can really get those trees popping.
This idea brings to mind the "tenting" that is done when houses are fumigated for pests (termites, etc). Basically these are heavy canvas tarps about 40ftx40ft and are draped over the house and "clipped" together using spring-clamps (think metal clothes-pegs about 6 inches long) and then the bottoms held down against the building with sandbags at the bottom of the walls. Covering a normal single story residence takes a 6 man team about half a day if they hustle.
I have seen these stay put in winds of 25+ mph but not hurricane (or santa-anna) speeds. With a bit more thought about the fastening system this could be an option for wild-fires. Rather than deploy trained firefighters to protect individual buildings, relatively plentiful unskilled persons (volunteers, homeowners, etc) could rent/borrow the blankets from the fire services and drape only the most at-risk buildings. This would leave the firefighters to do more critical work containing the fire. After the danger had past most of the blankets could be returned for re-use.
If I was watching a fire approach my house as I packed up my family and a truck rolled up with tarps and 10 guys and they offerred to drape my house for $5000 I am pretty sure I would say yes, please.
Re: Fire blankets protect homes from wildfires
