Goats, The Ultimate Green Landscapers in Los Angeles

by Chris Santiago · 2010-07-12 12:53:00 UTC
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Do poisonous weed killers and noisy weed whackers really get your goat? If so, you might want to try hiring the same sustainable landscaping crew that the Community Redevelopment Agency of Los Angeles has been using to trim a downtown hillside — a herd of goats from San Diego.

For the third year in a row, the CRA/LA is trucking goats into the City of Angels to "work for food" on Angels Knoll. Provided by Environmental Land Management, the goats are "an energy-efficient, eco-friendly and inexpensive way for CRA/LA to clear the weed-choked, steep, and hard to reach hill," according to a press release.

Owner Johnny Gonzalez told National Public Radio that the goats "allow the natural plants to take hold and pretty much do away with all the invasive weeds and grasses."

Many weed killers contain dangerous herbicides, such as atrazine, that can contaminate water supplies and cause serious damage to humans and wildlife alike. Motorized weed whackers aren't great environmental choices either, since they are usually powered by two-stroke gasoline engines. Besides burning fossil fuel, the devices are just plain loud and annoying.

The goats also draw crowds and add a little dose of rural to the urban landscape. Finney, a homeless man who lives near the hill site, told NPR the goats "make everybody smile. Normally people come and go here to the Metro. It's so nice to see people stopping and smiling and laughing."

The downside? For one, the goats have to be trucked in from San Diego, which leaves a trail of carbon in both directions. But if other agencies and landscapers make use of goats locally, this drawback could be minimized.

The other drawback is that this idyllic piece of L.A. landscaping already has an end date: The site is scheduled to become part of a big new office complex, another cog in Downtown L.A.'s architectural Renaissance.

We can only hope that CRA/LA's innovative and greener use of resources will keep sprouting up in different places. And considering how strapped for cash the city is, you can probably bet on it: Goats save the agency $3,000 over their weed-whacking and weed-killing alternatives.

Environmentally-friendly and more cost effective? Now that's a shot "herd" round the world.

Photo Credit: cleverclevergirl

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Chris Santiago is a freelance writer and editor. He most recently worked at McGraw-Hill and "got green" at Oberlin College.
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