Livestock Landscaping

Livestock Landscaping: Vermont ski areas employ goats and sheep to clear slopes

Months before the first snow beckons skiers, sheep and goats are hitting the slopes in Vermont. Dozens of animals have been mowing down overgrown vegetation at Jay Peak near the Canadian border. They’re expected to clear 25 acres over a five-week stint, an experiment officials say is worth a try on part of the 300 acres that need to be mowed. The goal is to gradually reduce the reliance on gas-powered mechanical mowers.

“This year has proven that it can be done and be done successfully,” said Andy Stenger, director of mountain and base area operations. “They’re great employees. They take a lot of lunch breaks, but that’s kind of the idea.”

The animals wear special collars that emit a noise if they get too close to an invisible fence and deliver a mild shock if they cross the barrier. The collars also send data to the herd’s owner, Adam Ricci of Cloud Brook Grazing.

Using livestock for landscaping isn’t new. More than 25 years ago, a New Hampshire electric company used 1,000 sheep to clear vegetation under power lines.

Georgia Tech brought in goats to control an invasive plant overtaking a section of campus.

New York City has also used goats to clear parts of its parks.

Ricci said his goats and sheep spent a busy summer cleaning up backyards, reclaiming abandoned farmland, gobbling up poison ivy and removing invasive species from the grounds of a retirement community. 

“Ideally, we can scale this up to the point where it’s working well and then hopefully develop a model that can be used at other ski resorts as well,” he said. “But there’s still a lot to learn here.”

Goatscaping reduces the carbon footprint of vegetation control, reduces erosion and increases a site’s capacity to hold water, Ricci said. The cost per acre is like mechanical mowing, though he acknowledges the animals are slow.

“Conventional methods, they’re covering this whole entire site in about 10 days,” he said. “So these guys work significantly slower than weed whackers do.”

But employees and visitors at Jay Peak have enjoyed the friendly herd, Stenger said.

“It’s a lot of fun to have them on the mountain,” he said.