The Herd hard at work, they are the “goat-to” team for this kind of work.
Our Goat friends along with Head Herder and Chief Wrangler Tammy are back in action for SDOT to help clear some unwanted invasive Himalayan Blackberry and Japanese Knotweed from a West Seattle hillside stairway along SW Holden Street between Delridge Way SW and 20th Ave SW.
This an example of SDOT using “green” technology to support environmental stewardship.
Here’s a short video of Tammy sharing details about Franz and the Goat posse:
The Goats were happy to clear the brush, help deter some possible crime, and enjoyed some free breakfast, lunch and dinner. The weather was cloudy and rainy to start, but cleared later in the day so it wasn’t that baaaad. The goats took about four days to chew and ruminate, but didn’t overthink any of their work that went on around the clock.
Goats are waaay better suited to steep hillsides than humans, making it safer, more cost-effective and mutually beneficial to have this work done by goats than by humans.
The Goats even drew visitors who weren’t sheepish to say hello, and take photos for spreading the good work on social media.
Katie and Scott stopped by to check out Franz and posse doing their thing.
The Goats have four stomachs, so they can eat and digest the blackberry (thorns and all), and knotweed without repopulating the seeds anywhere, meaning they aren’t spreading the plants elsewhere. The Herd cleared about 7,000 square feet of invasive vegetation making the stairway access safer for the neighborhood. We appreciate their “can-do” and “Goat-to” attitude; they’re happy, the neighbors that stopped by seemed happy, a win-win situation.