A campus program with a safety mission
Cal Poly San Luis Obispo established its Goat Program in the summer of 2012 to provide vegetation management on campus and give students hands-on experience with livestock. One of its central purposes is fire safety: the goats graze a firebreak that creates defensible space in case a wildfire threatens the school.
Reporting on the program describes roughly 30 goats grazing alongside about 26 sheep — the goats tackling weeds, brush, and parts of trees while the sheep clean up grass.
Grazing as a teaching tool
Beyond fuel reduction, the program doubles as education, letting animal-science students learn targeted grazing firsthand. It’s a model that blends practical wildfire mitigation with training the next generation of land managers.
For a fire-prone California campus, it’s also a visible demonstration that grazing is a serious, repeatable defensible-space strategy.