概要：我们曾有“天苍苍，野茫茫，风吹草低见牛羊。”的美丽牧歌。而今，这又有新的概念加入。
山火给人的生命财产和自然环境带来巨大威胁。通常造成山火的自然原因在于高温干旱，而干燥的灌木丛则给山火提供充足的燃料。由于羊具有非凡的消化能力，通过发展畜羊养殖，把羊放到野外把已经死亡干燥的草吃光，阻碍草种繁殖蔓延，釜底抽薪，既减少防灾资金投入，又可以以受人欢迎的生态模式有效减少山火发生，目前，希腊、西班牙、葡萄牙、智利和美国的一些地区都将牧羊用于景观和防火管理。
2024年1月19日于北城家园
Firefighting Goats
Meat, milk, cheese –just some of the things provided by goats. But now we can also add fire safety to this list. As wildfires damage increasingly large areas of the planet each year, goat herds may offer a way of reducing the risk.
肉、奶、奶酪——这些都是山羊会给人们提供的东西。但现在还可以在这个列表中加上“消防安全”这一项。每年野火都会破坏地球上越来越多的地区，山羊群可能提供了一种降低野火风险的方法。
Wildfires are made possible by hot, dry weather conditions as well as a supply of dead vegetation that serves as fuel. We may have limited control over the first factor, but we can control the second. Reducing the fuel load lowers the probability of wildfires occurring, as well as the amount of damage caused.
炎热干燥的天气条件以及作为燃料的枯死植被使野火成为可能。我们可能无法控制第一个因素（天气条件），但可以控制第二个因素（枯死植被）。减少可燃物品堆积降低了发生野火的几率，也降低了可能造成的损失。
This is where we can turn to goats to provide a solution. Goats are being used for landscape management in a number of places around the world, including Greece, Spain, Portugal, Chile and various parts of the United States.
在这一点上，我们可以求助于山羊来提供解决方案。希腊、西班牙、葡萄牙、智利和美国的一些地区等世界各地许多地方都将山羊用于景观管理。
Goats have a very tough digestive system. Many kinds of vegetation that are toxic to other animals can be easily eaten by goats. It's not just fully-grown plants that goats are able to deal with: any seeds that pass through a goat become non-viable and will not grow.
山羊的消化系统很强健。许多对其他动物有毒的植物都很容易被山羊吃掉。山羊能消化处理的不仅仅有成熟的植物：任何通过山羊消化系统的种子都不能存活，也不会生长。
Human clearance teams have to worry about getting to hard-to-reach vegetation patches –goats don't. They are skilled mountain climbers and when standing on their hind legs, can reach up to two metres to devour shrubs and grass that humans would struggle to reach.
在降低野火风险时，人类清除队不得不担心难以触达的植被块，但山羊不需要担心。山羊是熟练的登山者，它们用后腿站立时，可达两米高，吞食人类难以触达的灌木和草。
Because of this, using goats can reduce both the possibility of workplace accidents and the amount of money spent on fire protection measures. Goat herds have been found to clear some patches of land for a third of the price of human vegetation control teams.
正因如此，使用山羊既可以减少工作场所事故的可能性，也可以减少用于消防措施的资金。人们发现，山羊群清理一些土地的费用是人类植被控制小组费用的三分之一。
Cost and safety aren't the only benefits. Goats are quieter than lawnmowers and people usually prefer to see goats grazing rather than litres of herbicide being sprayed on the land. Children are often fascinated to see the goats at work and this provides an opportunity to educate people about preventing wildfires.
成本和安全并非使用山羊的唯一的好处。山羊比割草机更安静，人们通常更愿意看到山羊吃草，而不是在土地上喷洒数升的除草剂。孩子们经常着迷于看到山羊在工作，这提供了一个教育人们如何预防野火的机会。
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