Seattle City Light cleared out overgrown English ivy, weeds and blackberries recently in North Seattle with the help of four legged workers that made a "baaa" sound.

The city hired 260 goats from a Spokane company, Healing Hooves, to maintain a one-acre area behind the North Seattle Substation. Healing Hooves, is a natural vegetation management company.

"They like to eat blackberries. They eat and it does not bother them. Their mouths chew it up into small pieces," said Craig Madsen, owner of Healing Hooves.

With a steep slope, the goats are used where it's too dangerous for human workers. "They can climb real steep," said Madsen.

Betsey Searing, landscape supervisor for Seattle City Light said mechanical equipment cannot reach far enough in to clear the vegetation and that it would have required the use of herbicides.

Herbicides could drift onto neighboring homes and leave the vegetation dry enough to become a fire hazard.

Overgrown blackberry and English ivy vines can cause electrical shorts at the substation. They can spread seeds that drift onto the substation facility.

The goats to spent three days at the site at a cost of $2,500. This is less expensive than normal methods of vegetation control which involves, Seattle City Light crews, machines or chemicals.

Seattle City Light describes the goats as natural browsers that eat branches of bushes and other plants. The goats go into the dense overgrown area and eat their way through the thicket.

"They eat so much, lay down and eat again. They eat when they want, they are on their own schedule," said Madsen.

Half of the goats are six months old. The others are three to four years old. They weigh 40 to 125 pounds and are a mix of male and female, Spanish, African and dairy goats.

According to an article written by Brian Bull for The Samuel Roberts Nobel Foundation, he turned 200 goats loose on his 30-acre pasture that was a wall of brush. After six weeks, Bull said the 30 acres looked like a "golf course" with only a few sticks of short brush remaining and no weeds.

"Goats possess a unique characteristic that separates them from almost all other types of livestock. They would rather eat brush and weeds than grass because they are browsers, where as cattle are grazers. Browsing makes up approximately 60 percent of a goat's diet but only 10 to 15-percent of a cows," said Bull.

City Councilmember Jean Godden who chairs the Energy and Technology Committee says it's appropriate to control vegetation in a natural way and to be good environmental stewards.

"It's a great way to protect a valuable city asset. Taming the weeds is long overdue," said Godden.

In August Seattle City Light held a public meeting in the neighborhood to explain their use of goats and the reception was positive. A portable fence to keep them inside their work area corralled the goats.

Seattle City Light is looking at other sites in the city where the goats can be used. Last year the Seattle Department of Parks and Recreation utilized goats to clear a Seattle City Light property that was being turned into a park on Renton Avenue South.

Goats are employed in Idaho, California and Oregon to clear land. In California, goats have cleared brushy areas to decrease the potential for wild fires.

The state of Arkansas has relied on goats in the Orachita National Forest. The states of Tennessee and North Carolina have had success with goats in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

"This is a unique way for Seattle City Light to address the weed problem. This is an environmentally safe way to do it," said Jorge Carrasco, superintendent of Seattle City Light.

Seattle City Light will evaluate other sites in the city to see if the goats can be used to control vegetation.

Healing Hooves also works with private landowners. Madsen owns the company with his wife Sue Lani Madsen and have been working together 15 years on range and pasture related issues.

Craig Madsen worked for the Natural Resources Conservation Service for 14 years. He has a Bachelor of Science in Range Resources and Wildlife Resources.

On their website, Healing Hooves calls their goats "self-propelled weed control with an attitude." They are also people friendly.

The Healing Hooves goats will return to the North Seattle Substation in the spring to munch on fresh vegetation.

Seattle City Light has a web page on their goat plan with links to other relevant organizations at www.seattle.gov/light.