Extreme overgrowth and underbrush on the hillside… prompted GSA’s Pacific Rim Region property management to take quick action to avoid summer fires. Ultimately, the choice was easy: Use a herd of goats. The decision meant a cost-saving to taxpayers over hiring manual labor and proved to be better for the environment than bulldozers….”
Before Goats
After Goats
According to a June 2010 report on the use of goats, it costs an annual $5,300 to employ government workers to clear the brush and $1,995 to “employ” goats. Also, clearing the brush took 1 week when government workers did the job, but the goats did it in just 3 days. The use of goats is also more environmentally friendly:
“Unlike bulldozers, used historically for the annual project, goats control brush and weeds without disturbing the grass and soil. They also do not pollute or leave synthetic chemicals that could run off into lakes and streams …”
It seems there are a lot of donkeys in positions of power these days, so hiring fellow four legged types is not so strange.
Great idea. How about we replace Congress with a herd of goats...might just improve things.
ReplyDeleteYou got my drift.
ReplyDeleteThis goat thing just might catch on. I wonder who thought of it and how the hell was the subject broached. Must be that legal Pot.;)
ReplyDeleteAt least the goats don't stand around 4 at a time waiting for "instructions". They go right to work. Where can I find a job that pays me to eat?
ReplyDeleteThis really got my goat.
ReplyDeleteThose damn goats were expensive to rent. They need to buy them and rent them out as well.
ReplyDeleteI hate to say it but Pasadena is not the first government to use goats for landscape maintenance. Denver tried it about 15 or so years ago and I think other towns have tried the little critters as well. Have to admit that I don't know the success rate however. Think of all the free fertilizer.
ReplyDeleteTwo grand to bring some goats in for free eats? Strikes me as way overpriced. One Fly has a good idea, and I have another one. I suspect the county's special guests – you know, the ones in orange coveralls – could be induced to clear that brush for even less expense, in return for some treat like a bowl of Haagen Dazs after supper, a pizza party after the job's completed or a day off their sentence for every good day of brush-clearing work they turn in.
ReplyDeleteJust looking at the results, I hope the reduction in fire danger is sufficient to compensate for reducing this parcel of land to eyesore ugly, not to mention facilitating soil erosion.
Sorry to sound so negative, Holte. Someone was definitely trying to come up with a win-win. But IMO the downside outweighs the benefit.
I think it is a fair idea to use goats, as long as they are American goats and the powers that be don't start bringing in goats from other countries to do the chomping. What would happen to our American goats? Seriously saving money by using animals to clear and fertilize land is fine as long as money saved is spent in landscaping derelict land, perhaps make a playground or a mini park. Anything to spruce the place up and give something to the community.
ReplyDeleteThen comes -
ReplyDeletegoat cheese
goat pelts and gloves and shoe wear
goat spare ribs
goat kabob
Last but not least goats head soup-mmmmm good.
Hopefully fairly soon I will be moving to the ponderosa and will have a couple African Pygmy types. I like these little guys a bunch.
Sometimes, the simplest answer is the best one. We often forget that.
ReplyDeleteI posted this with my tongue a little in my cheek, but the more I think about it and reading what you all have said it makes a lot of sense. I hope that savings were not the only reason goats were used and that some bright spark is thinking seriously about how far this could go.
ReplyDeleteI know that in San Diego county the "special guest in orange jumpsuits" are used to clear brush as a part of community service. But when you factor in how many paid employees, including the armed deputy that has to keep an eye on them, are involved, I don't think that's cheaper than placing some goats in an area and letting them munch.
ReplyDeleteSomeone needs to teach those goats computer and clerical skills. That would be the big money saver.
It's a shame that a goat's great skill is to eat almost anything and if put in front of a computer they would eat that too, so the chance of getting them into the California legislature is somewhat remote. One can only hope, goats replacing donkeys?
ReplyDelete