Goats rented from a Texas company cleared two Houston Public Works stormwater detention areas from February to April of 2023. Officials said their presence helped clear the area, critical for local drainage.
Houston Chronicle
Dug Begley, Staff writer
Soon Houston residents may actually celebrate a group of city workers standing around eating lunch or lying down on the job.
Houston Public Works is poised to expand its use of goat herds to clear detention ponds and ditches, after two rounds of tests proved the grazing beasts could be cheaper and more effective than hiring landscaping crews.
“This method is eco-friendly, green and sustainable with minimal carbon footprint,” said Muhammad Umer Khan, supervising engineer for Public Works' transportation and drainage operations division.
Renting the herd from a Rising Star-based company costs about $2,500 for a one-acre area, compared to about $8,000 for two-legged landscapers with heavy equipment, Khan said, during a presentation Thursday to City Council’s Transportation, Technology and Infrastructure Committee. Stormwater detention areas can get thickly covered with brush and tall grasses, along sometimes steep slopes that require human crews to take precautions and use special machinery, sometimes even having to cut a path simply to get to the site. It is all in a day’s work for the goats.
Meanwhile the goats and the shepherd buy a little goodwill with neighbors, Khan added.
“The neighborhoods love them because they are cute and make almost no loud noise during construction,” he said.
Khan was quickly cut off by At-Large Councilman David Robinson, chairman of the committee.
“Did you just say they are cute?” Robinson asked.
Turns out they also are efficient. Based on previous uses of the goats in North Houston in late 2021, and earlier this year in two spots in southwest Houston, 150 billies and nannies were able to cover terrain landscapers usually cannot, ate all of the grasses including some toxic to people, and mowed drainage areas to the point stormwater capacity and flow was improved.
Water sampling for both of the locations this year is pending, but officials do not think the goats had any adverse effects. As a result, Public Works officials said their goal is “permanent goat use as part of vegetation management practices.”
That likely will include only wide, open areas, such as detention ponds and maybe some large ditches, officials explained. In other words, residents should not expect to see all of the city’s mowing turned over to the relentless munchers.
The use of goats for engine-free mowing and land clearing has grown in popularity in many areas. The Houston Arboretum unleashed the same goats supplied by Rent-A-Ruminant Texas into a 2.5 acre area in early May.
“We feel like the goats are almost family now,” said Debbie Markey, the arboretum’s executive director, in a statement. “They have been on-site several times in the last few years to assist with removing overgrown vegetation and invasive plant species. This eco-friendly alternative to commercial mowing and herbicides is working.”
City officials touted the eco-friendliness of the goats as part of Houston’s efforts to reduce emissions to meet climate change pledges while also making the region more resilient to flooding and heavy rains.
dug.begley@houstonchronicle.com