Twenty acres, one week, ahead of schedule
In February 2026, the City of Glendale brought roughly 200 female goats back to the hillsides of Verdugo Park as part of its year-round wildfire mitigation strategy. The herd, supplied by California Grazing Co., spent about a week grazing 20 acres of dry brush on the slopes leading to nearby homes.
Patty Mundo, fire environmental safety specialist for the Glendale Fire Department, said the city moved the grazing up on the calendar to get ahead of fire season: heavy rains in late 2025 drove months of uncontrolled vegetation growth, and it had been about six months since the park was last grazed.
How the project was run
Mundo described a standard targeted-grazing setup: two to three goat shepherds stayed with the herd 24/7 inside an electrified perimeter fence, with guard dogs on hand in case other animals tried to get in. "They have an endless appetite and will quickly devour wildfire fuel such as tall weeds, bushes and low-hanging tree leaves," she said, "which makes them an ideal and environmentally friendly alternative to heavy equipment and herbicides."
It's a useful data point for any city or HOA sizing a similar job: roughly 200 goats to clear 20 acres of overgrown brush in about a week — the kind of density-to-acreage ratio that's hard to find published anywhere else.