A herd hired in May, a fire in October
In May 2019, the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation hired a local grazing company, 805 Goats, to clear roughly 13 acres of brush around the hilltop library in Simi Valley — up to 500 goats eating the dry scrub that surrounds the campus.
Five months later, the wind-driven Easy Fire burned 1,300 acres and completely surrounded the library, coming within about 50 feet of the pavilion housing the Air Force One Boeing 707. Inside sat the aircraft, a piece of the Berlin Wall, and the archives of a presidency.
The firebreak did its job
The grazed perimeter — vegetation already eaten down months earlier — slowed the flames at the library's edge and gave crews defensible ground to work from. Firefighters on scene said the goats' fire line helped them fight the fire; the library's exterior was scorched in spots, but the buildings and collection survived.
CNN, Smithsonian, Newsweek, and the World Economic Forum all ran the story, and it remains the single most famous demonstration of what a grazed fuel break actually does: it doesn't stop a wildfire by itself — it buys firefighters the ground and the time to stop it.
The lesson for every hilltop property
The library's situation — a high-value structure on a brushy hilltop in wind-driven fire country — is the same situation as thousands of California homes, campuses, and facilities. The playbook that worked there is available to all of them: graze the perimeter before the season, every season.
The Reagan Foundation has continued bringing the goats back. That part matters too: fuel grows back, and so does the protection when you re-graze it.