

August 8, 2013\u2014Rented goats are clearing unwanted vines and brush from the perimeter of Congressional Cemetery in Washington, DC. The goats are an eco-friendly substitute for herbicides and help protect the nearby Anacostia River from chemical runoff.

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Paul Williams, Congressional Cemetery President:

\"It's a little unusual week in the cemetery. We welcomed almost 60 goats to our perimeter area and they're going to be grazing for 6 days, eliminating or invasive species. Lots of kudzu, poison ivy, even English ivy that tends to kill our large mature trees down here.\"

Brian Knox, Eco-Goats Supervising Forester\"

\"In leaves and stems, a typical goat is eating about ten to fifteen pounds of green material a day. They're very sustainable livestock, they're fun to watch, they're low impact and I think we're rediscovering some real old technology that needs to be brought back.\"

\"Sites like this where we have rocks, piles of dirt, deep ditches, lots of down logs, the goats do a really \u00a0good job just clamoring over whatever they need to, standing on them to get up higher. So they're a great way, especially on highly erodible soils, they're very low impact. A big goat weighs 150 pounds, they're very agile and they don't tear up the ground.\"

Lauren Maloy, Congressional Cemetery Program Director\"

\"It's actually incredible the amount of progress they've made in one day. When we walked back here yesterday you could barely see anything around you. Opposed to herbicides or pesticides, things like that. We are right near the Anacostia River, we're quite close to that and so this is a way to control it without using chemicals. We are especially aware of that because we are in the Anacostia watershed.\"

Paul Williams, Congressional Cemetery President:

\"It's actually much cheaper to hire the goats. We would have to hire humans as well as purchase pesticides, herbicides, and then we're left with the debris that we clear out. The goats cost about $4,000 for the week and if you break it down it's about twenty-five cents per goat per hour.\"

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