Goats Hired By Portland General Electric To Get Rid Of Weeds

Portland General Electric (PGE)'s new furry employees got to work recently, according to KOIN 6.

The electric company partnered with Healing Hooves, an Edwall, Washington business that uses goats for vegetation control, to help manage the weeds near Oak Grove Powerhouse. PGE usually employs weed whackers to clear up the area around the seven-mile pipeline, but now they're turning toward several hundred goats.

Shepherd Craig Madsen and his watchdog Gigi will be supervising these hungry workers. It will reportedly take four days.

“We section off areas, and the goats go to work doing their thing,” Madsen said. “They then take breaks to chew their cud and get back to it when they’re hungry again.”

Reporters say using goats for these types of projects reduces or eliminates the use of pesticides, avoids risk to crews, and other benefits.

“I have a passion for renewable energy and doing the right thing for the environment,” Matthew Bodine said, who is the plant maintenance manager at PGE’s Westside Hydro Facility. “If I can find a more ecologically sound way of doing something that’s also cost-effective and safer, that’s great.”

Click here to read more about the eco-friendliness of goats.