Waynesville Woman Uses Goats to Gobble Up Underbrush, Reduce Wildfire Risk

credit: Nick Carnes

When Lisa Miller noticed some of the brush growing around her home in Waynesville, NC, she knew she had to do something about it.

"I saw the fuel that's going to make a wildfire worse, and I figured I needed to do something about it," she tells WNCN.

So she enlisted the help of Tommy Rutledge, who runs Mount Carmel Goats, which specializes in ecological land management.

Miller's seven goats will be out in the open for two weeks, munching away on invasive species such as English ivy and little shrubs in a fenced-in area.

"I think they're up to the challenge," Rutledge says.

"This is very natural, and the goats do all the work."

The goats are named after candy and sweets, including Hershey, Heath, Uno, Reese, and Oreo.

Miller says they're more cost-effective than a crew with heavy machinery or pesticides, and she might get a discount on her insurance.

"Perhaps after this experiment is done and it's successful, I'll talk with my insurance company about seeing perhaps a discount on my homeowner's insurance," she says.

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