Well, I do believe that goats are being maligned here. Goats happen to be very efficient browsers and can subsist on the poorest of scrub vegetation in areas that sheep and cattle cannot. I'm afraid that they are often blamed for damage that has already occurred through logging, poor agricultural practices and erosion. Then someone introduces goats because they are the only possibility in such a degraded situation and then the goats are blamed for the damage. This is not to say that the idea of the Forest Service is necessarily a good one, or that I think that goats are not responsible for any damage, but let's be fair. It is not the fault of the goat, it is the poor practices of the managers of the land that is responsible for such degradation, including the introduction of too many animals for the amount of browse available. My two cents, but this is also off topic, in my opinion. Ernie O'Byrne Northwest Garden Nursery 86813 Central Road Eugene OR 97402-9284 USA Phone: 541 935-3915 FAX: 541 935-0863 "Peace is not merely a distant goal that we seek, but a means by which we arrive at that goal." -- Martin Luther King, Jr. pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php