300 goats graze on Ken Mitchell Open Space in Brighton to reduce wildfire fuel

BRIGHTON, Colo. — The sounds of munching can be heard at Ken Mitchell Open Space, as a herd of hundreds of goats are busy at work clearing out invasive species and reducing potential wildfire fuel.

For some visitors, this is quite a surprise to see, while for others, they know what to expect thanks to the signs placed throughout the area.

"It's also not very often that people and communities like this have been exposed to something like this many animals or this much stock in one place," said Jordan Sarazen, Founder of Goat Bros.

The open space is around 600 acres and was once an aggregate mine that was handed over to the City of Brighton. Bob Woods, open space manager for the City of Brighton, explained the different options the city could have done to help mitigate the land and control the invasive vegetation.

"One of the tools we could use is to mow the whole area, which we have done in the past," said Woods. "Takes a lot of manpower, takes a lot of gas, takes a lot of wear and tear on our equipment, too. Another option we have is to spray herbicides out here, but being that close to water in the lakes, it's really just not a good choice."

This marks the second year the city has worked with Goat Bros to help mitigate the land after seeing the positive benefits from the year prior.

"We've noticed where they grazed last year, we do have some more native grasses and more native plants coming up," Woods said.

These goats are going through more fuel than last year. Sarazen explained it is because the herd is about to get bigger as 86 females are pregnant.

"So they're eating for their kids as well right now and they're also starting to lactate," said Sarazan. "So the goats are increasing their consumption significantly. And we've also got some big wethers (male goats) that we added to the herd, and some of those goats are anywhere from 250 to 300 pounds. When they eat 3 to 4% of their weight a day, that's a lot of vegetation."

While the goats successfully do their part of clearing the land, they are also helping the future of the area in case a wildfire were to start. A couple of weeks ago, a small fire burned about six and a half acres that was filled with weeds and invasive plants.

"I think if, you know, it was more in an area where the goats had just recently grazed, there would be a lot less fuel to burn and it would have been a lot slower to spread that fire," Woods said.

Courtesy: Maggy Wolanske

The goats will graze in Brighton until Sunday, so there is time for visitors to see them in action and ask the Goat Bros any questions they may have.

"One of the big things that we love to do when we work with the municipality is get the chance to bring people out to the land and see what we're doing, what the city's doing, what steps are they taking to improve the land. And I think this is just a great way to do that because the community loves it," Sarazen said.

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