Goats Return to Sunnyvale

SUNNYVALE, Calif. – Like the swallows to San Juan Capistrano and the buzzards to Hinckley, Ohio, the goats have returned to Sunnyvale.

More than 600 goats, with about 160 sheep in accompaniment, now blanket the landscape at the closed Sunnyvale landfill. The animals, complete with herding dogs, have been provided by Natural Solutions, a Santa Cruz-based business that rents out the goats clear the land.

Sunnyvale has had several fires over the years at the landfill as the summer-dried grasses become volatile. Ironically, in some instances the fires have been ignited by the mowers being used to cut the grass back for fire prevention. Mechanical mowers also pose a threat to the gas collection system which uses the methane gas generated naturally by the landfill to power City facilities. Damage in the past from mowers has been costly to repair. The goats very effectively reduce the fire hazard without any damage to the gas collection system.

According to Scott Kulenguskey of Natural Solutions, a mixture of South African Boer goats and Spanish goats are working the hillside along with South African Doper sheep. Four border collies and a Great Pyrenees act as livestock guards.

"Goats provide the ultimate in ecologically-friendly fire prevention," said Sunnyvale Solid Waste Program Manager Mark Bowers. "The goats are far less damaging to our gas collection system than mechanical mowers, they reduce the spread of undesirable plant species such as the yellow star thistle, and goats don’t create noise or air pollution.

Sunnyvale pays $20,000 for the goats. Comparable costs for tractor mowing range from $10,000 to $15,000. But in at least one instance, $12,000 worth of damage was attributed to the mowers.