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Would goats have helped?

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As the Catalina fire tore through dry chaparral toward Avalon on Thursday, it came as no surprise that some residents were talking about goats.

Thousands of free-running goats have been killed or removed from the island since the early 1990s as part of the Catalina Island Conservancy’s efforts to restore the island to its natural state. The wild goats, descendants of farm animals imported by early settlers, were prolific grazers that consumed native chaparral and scrub plants and left hillsides barren of vegetation. A goat-free island would allow native plants and animals to rebound, said officials with the conservancy, which manages 88% of the largely uninhabited island. But on Thursday night, one island old-timer waxed nostalgic for the old days of well-grazed terrain. (More below)

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-Deborah Schoch

‘The goats kept the darn brush down,’ Joe Voci, 85, told a Times reporter.

That did not sit well with Bob Rhein, director of media relations at the conservancy, which has contended with goat-related controversies for decades.

The group removed the goats only after considerable study, Rhein said today.

‘We studied what was happening, and the grazing pressure was just too much for the natural ecosystem to fend with,’ Rhein said. ‘Plants that should have been there just weren’t anymore.’

He added, ‘The natural ecosystem was not rebounding. But it is now. Ask anyone.’

And on Catalina, for better or for worse, the natural ecosystem includes plants and shrubs that burn.

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