Arrowhead Spring Resort (San Bernardino, Calif. July 23 , 2024)
It’s a family affair as Kids, Billies and Nannies are hard at work in the fire-prone San Bernardino mountains trimming the explosive and burgeoning growth caused by this past winter’s record rainfall. The Tribe’s own San Manuel Fire Department deploys the herd to help trim the landscape.
The goat herd has increase to 400 and the animals truly are the “Greatest of all Time” at consuming grasses and scrub brush on the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians Reservation and nearby properties in San Bernardino. As a natural fire prevention measure, the goats have proven themselves to be effective, too. A recent wildfire stopped spreading in part once it reached an area cleared by the Tribe’s goats earlier this year.
The goats will spend several months on more than 1,000 acres to lower risks of a property damaging and life-threatening wildfire.
The goats are a natural way of ensuring the safety of the reservation and the greater community from wildfire, and an environmentally friendly extension of the Tribe’s culture of lands stewardship practiced by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians.
“The act of stewardship and caring for the land is a sacred duty of the Tribe,” says Chairwoman Lynn Valbuena. “Stewardship is a responsibility given to our people by the Creator. No matter who owns the land.”
Since 2019, this belief has provided a basis for the use of goats for fire prevention. The brush that covers the hillsides is an ideal food source as goats favor food at eye level, which sustains native plants that recover naturally over time.
