Goats are low-tech, can’t be patented, require regular upkeep intervals, and have a tendency to consume resources and reproduce without profit paid to the seller.

American culture at one point decided that machines were the only way to control the wilderness. Happily, we seem to be unlearning both the machines and the control lessons.

Goats are tasty and their milk makes good cheese. Machines just depreciate. Goats are also (mostly) self healing and self replicating. Our obsession with machines is so silly.

America has also been pretty labor poor for most of its history, which means hiring people is expensive.

It is done quite often and has been done in California for decades. Every few years a reporter finds out that goats are used for fire control for the first time and writes something that makes it sound like a new thing.

> why wasn't it done before?

I saw (fenced-in) goats trimming grass in the Berkeley Hills as far back as 2000. I'm sure people were doing it long before then.

> why isn't this done more often

Possibly because it's hard to make sure than none of the goats escape, breed, and wreak havoc on the native species. Eradicating invasive species can be unbelievably expensive and brutal (e.g. helicopters and machine guns), even on small islands. Hopefully they've embedded GPS trackers in all of their goats, but I still suspect that they're taking chances.

Among other reasons, "portable electric fences" as mentioned elsewhere haven't been a reliable or cheap thing until quite recently.

> The concept’s not unique to Ventura County, which has been using goats to trim vegetation for about five years.

In areas where fires haven't historically been as bad, it hasn't been necessary. A decade-long drought and environmental changes make things done elsewhere (Bay Area, for example) appealing in a new region.

I have heard about programs like this for 20 years.

These programs pop up from time to time but they never seem to spread.