Boston has hired a crew of goats as city landscapers, letting them loose to chomp acres of weeds and drop natural fertilizer along the way.
The city is paying $11,000 to a company that will deploy a dozen goats on a city-owned golf course and a wild area. They will eat poison ivy, buckthorn and invasive plant species clogging the land.
Officials said goats can digest seeds and oils that can be harmful to humans, and they're cheaper and quieter than lawnmowers.
The city started using goats for landscaping last year at a wild urban area in Hyde Park.
The goats will return there and start new work at the George Wright Golf Course. The goats will live in fenced-in pens until they finish their work.
Last year, the city of Boston enlisted some goats to help combat poison ivy.
