Ralph Kanz is back! Goats eat brush and deplete fire material -- if it sounds too good to be true, it is. Why? Because of the dimwits who wrote the contract. Yep -- goats are killing threatened and endangered plants.

On Tuesday, October 14, the Public Safety Committee will consider a new proposal for a Fire Assessment District in the Oakland hills. The proposal is to collect $1.8 million per year for goat grazing, fuel clearing, roving patrols and inspections. This year the council budgeted $200,000 for goat grazing, plus funds for brush clearing. The goats grazed about 250 acres at $800 per acre. This years grazing sites included Knowland Park, King Estates Park and Joaquin Miller Park.

Our worries come true I am one of many people who have been concerned about the environmental impacts of the goat and brush clearing programs. Goats often have been left to graze far too long in many locations, leading to bare dirt that then gets washed into creeks with the first rains. Goats carry seeds of invasive weeds between sites, and deposit and fertilize the seeds in the new location. They graze without discrimination between native and non-native plants, and wherever they graze regularly you will not find new growth of oak or madrone trees because the goats eat the seedlings. They even kill larger madrones by stripping the bark off the trunks. They will eat chunks of bark off of large oak trees, though it rarely hurts the trees. Goats can be beneficial for the restoration of native vegetation, but the timing and duration of grazing is extremely important, and so far the Oakland program has failed completely.

The Pallid Manzanita

Oakland is home to the pallid manzanita, a state listed endangered species in 1979 and federally listed as a threatened species in 1998. Huckleberry Preserve is home to the largest population of these plants, with a smaller population in Joaquin Miller Park in the general vicinity of Chabot Observatory. When the houses were built on Manzanita Drive next to Huckleberry in the 1970s soil was transported and dumped at the site now known as Manzanita Flat on Skyline near Chabot. Pallids grew from seeds in the transported soil and the city proclaimed the location with a sign. The goat-grazing program has killed the 19 plants that once lived there. Across the road from Manzanita Flat is an Arbor Day sign from the 1970's when then-Governor Jerry Brown came to Oakland to celebrate the day and plant trees. All of the madrone trees near the Arbor Day sign are now dead as a result of goat grazing.

When the EIR for Chabot was being prepared in 1994 there were 21 pallids on the site. Condition of Approval # 25 required Chabot to prepare an Alameda manzanita habitat conservation plan' to ensure the continued existence of this endangered species at the project site.' Today almost half of the Chabot plants are dead. These have died from lack of sunlight as the trees around them have been allowed to grow up and shade them out, eventually killing the pallids.

The third pallid manzanita population is in Joaquin Miller Park is on both sides of Skyline between Chabot and Roberts Recreation area. In 1989 this population is reported to have had 65 plants. Today there are about half that number. Of the 105 reported plants between the three sites, only about 50 can be found alive today.

On September 22 as I was passing Chabot I looked over and was shocked (but not really surprised) to see a pallid manzanita cut and tossed out on the side of Skyline. A few days earlier the city had contractors clearing along the side of Skyline starting at Joaquin Miller Road. The crews has no training as to what should and should not be cut. They were simply clearing along the road to meet the specification they had been given. Last year a crew killed two pallids across from 7825 Skyline (near Huckleberry) and the year before that a plant was killed next to 7716 Skyline.

The California Endangered Species Act prohibits the take of endangered species without a permit from the Department of Fish and Game. In order to receive a permit you must prepare a mitigation plan to replace any plants that are taken, and part of that process includes the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report. The city has taken listed plants. This requires a permit and the preparation of an EIR to make sure the plants will survive as a species. The Fire Assessment District could help local plant communities and habitats while improving fire safety. The current program may actually increase the amount of flammable materials by encouraging the growth of non-native plants.

The council must complete an EIR before proceeding with a new Fire Assessment District, and must demand that all staff and crews are trained to protect endangered species.