In a new take on eco-friendly policies, the city of Seattle used 280 goats to clear away some hard to reach underbrush.

Costing the city only $2,500 for “vegetation removal,” the herd striped part of a steep 1-acre hillside in the Maple Leaf neighborhood. They ate English ivy and blackberry brambles that were considered fire hazards.

Jean Godden, chairwoman of the Seattle City Council’s Energy and Technology Committee, said, “It’s appropriate that we use goats to control weeds, to help us be environmental stewards.”

They are also less costly, in monetary as well as environmental terms, city officials said. Such a hill, rising about 35 feet on the north side of the substation, would be labor-intensive, expensive, unsafe for human workers to clear—and daunting for machines, officials said.

Godden said that because the Maple Leaf neighborhood has one of the highest altitudes in the city, any pesticides used would flow downstream, polluting streams and harming fish—something the city’s critical-areas ordinance aims to stop.

Each ruminant will eat 3 percent of its body weight—most are 125 to 150 pounds.

And if each goat ate the usual 5 to 6 pounds daily, it would take three to four days to clear the hillside. Because they’ll eat just about anything, certain trees will likely be fenced off.