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Good practice Imported

Laguna Beach Goat Grazing Program — Municipal Fuel-Break Maintenance by Contracted Herds

United States of America · Laguna Beach · See the United States of America profile

Evidence: Descriptive / self-reported Top 64% 40/100 · Ask Evidence Copilot about this practice

Since the early 1990s, and expanded with a 1995 FEMA hazard-mitigation grant, Laguna Beach's fire department has paid contractors to graze goats on roughly 276 of the city's 363 acres of fuel breaks each year; the programme now costs about $185,000 annually.

276 acres
Fuel break maintained by goat grazing
363 acres
Total fuel break acreage
185000 USD
Current annual programme cost
396000 USD
1995 FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant (1995)

Details

Maturity
Established
Promoter
City of Laguna Beach Fire Department
Period
1991–present
Keywords
wildfire prevention, municipal vegetation management, targeted grazing

Context

The City of Laguna Beach, California has run a municipal goat-grazing vegetation-management programme since the early 1990s, expanded after the October 1993 Laguna Beach fire burned roughly 14,000 acres and destroyed or damaged 441 homes.

Activities

In 1995 the city received a $396,000 FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program award, matched with $132,000 of city funds, to scale up the effort. Today the Fire Department maintains 10 fuel modification zones covering about 363 acres of fuel break in total, of which roughly 276 acres are maintained through contracted goat grazing; between 75 and 600 goats are deployed in a typical year, with up to 1,000 in peak years.

Results

The programme's current annual cost is approximately $185,000, and the city and industry sources report that grazing costs 10% or less per acre compared with hand crews, because goats reach steep or rocky terrain that is difficult or costly to clear mechanically. After the July 2025 Rancho Fire near Laguna Beach, local reporting noted that recently grazed areas had reduced fuel loads that officials said may have helped slow the fire's spread, and FEMA has described the programme as a cost-effective, environmentally friendly method of maintaining defensible space.

Conclusions

The evidence available is strongest on programme scale, cost, and multi-decade institutional continuity; neither source presents a controlled or quantified comparison of fire behaviour in grazed versus ungrazed terrain, and the Rancho Fire assessment is an officials' post-hoc judgement rather than a measured study.

Implementation
Indicative cost
Low (< €50k) — ~$185,000 annual municipal cost; originally scaled up with a $396,000 FEMA grant plus $132,000 city match.
Time to results
Long (> 3 years) — Running continuously since the early 1990s, over three decades.
Staffing & skills
City of Laguna Beach Fire Department, Contracted goat-grazing herders

Conditions for success

  • FEMA Hazard Mitigation Grant Program co-funding used to scale up after the 1993 fire
  • Contracted grazing costing 10% or less per acre versus hand crews on steep or rocky terrain
  • Multi-decade sustained municipal budget line

Common failure modes

  • No controlled or quantified comparison of fire behaviour in grazed versus ungrazed terrain has been published

Commonly funded by

National / regional programmes Own resources / municipal budget

Indicative funding routes for practices of this type — always check each programme's current calls and eligibility rules.

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Data sources

Where this practice's information was retrieved from, and when.

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