Grazing as a wildfire prevention tool is one of the most eco-friendly ways to clear dry brush and remove invasive plants.
The city of Los Angeles is deploying a herd of 500 goats to clear overgrown vegetation in the Sepulveda Basin Wildlife Reserve, an area that will also be used as training facilities for the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics.
According to a Smart CIties Dive article by Robyn Griggs Lawrence, the goat grazing pilot program is meant to stop invasive plants without pesticides and reduce wildfire risk from dry brush.
According to Lawrence, “Los Angeles joins a host of other California cities, including San Diego, Oakland and West Sacramento, that have brought in goats to chew through weeds that pose fire risk.”
A 2014 review of goat grazing as a wildfire prevention tool called it “probably the most ecologically sound technique for creating discontinuities in fuels, mainly at the shrubby layer, and disrupting fuel ladders.”
FULL STORY: Before the world arrives for the LA28 Olympics, the goats are going to work
How Goats Aid in Wildfire Prevention
Grazing goats can quickly and effectively clear steep or hard-to-reach hillsides of invasive, fire-fueling vegetation.
Don't Cement Our Future: Rethinking LA’s Landscape After Fire (and Floods)
A call for regenerative approaches to rebuilding that work with nature rather than against it.
'Place Shock' and the Ecology of Fear
How to conceive of rebuilding places amid sudden change in a region known for its “ecology of fear?” As the city embarks on the arduous task of rebuilding, the question arises: how do we reconcile the imperatives of safety and sustainability with the deeply ingrained human desire for continuity, for a sense of rootedness in the familiar?
The state-sanctioned urbicide of Austin
People don’t kill cities. Freeways do.
US to reduce Colorado River water deliveries to Mexico
A new Colorado Treaty amendment reduces Mexico’s Colorado River water allocation by 250,000 acre feet.
New Jersey’s second-largest city bans standalone data centers
Jersey City will continue to allow co-location facilities, such as those meant for research institutions that store their own data.
Amtrak not solely to blame for New Jersey commuter rail's unreliability, report finds
A new study from the Garden State Initiative found that NJ Transit’s budget grew 20% across a 4 year period, but reliability declined significantly over the same period.
EPA erases limits on planet-warming pollution from power plants
Under Monday’s plan, power plants would still have some limits on how much mercury, arsenic and other contaminants they can emit.
Phoenix announces new on-demand transit service, more frequent RAPID buses
Both new services will launch in October, and are part of Phoenix's Project Effective Access Solutions for Easing Congestion.
FREE Course: Walkable City 1: Why Walkability?
After describing his path towards focusing on walkability as the essence of good planning, Jeff Speck marches through his five principal reasons for making more walkable places.
Reinventing Malls: Planning Alchemy—Turning Gray Fields Into Gold
The course focuses on the opportunities and imperatives that shape reinvention of mall sites.
Eagle County Government
Harvard University Graduate School of Design
Nashville Planning Department
The Architects Foundation
University of Cincinnati Online
The Pocatello Development Authority
The Urban Renewal Agency of the City of Pocatello
Journal of the American Planning Association