The city of Hyattsville is fighting invasive plants by renting goats to eat them.

Using a grant from Prince George’s County and the Chesapeake Bay Trust, the city hired a herd of herbivores from Browsing Green Goats to clear out invasive vines that stunt young trees and strangle mature ones as well as poison ivy.

The goats are currently in a penned-in area just off the Northwest Branch Trail on the back side of Driskell Park.

The public has been invited to come watch the goats do their job, although they are not allowed to touch the goats and the pop-up fence is electrified. The goats will be finished with their work by the weekend, though the city will bring them back in the fall.

A more environmentally friendly option than traditional herbicides, hiring goats is also cheaper than paying gardeners to manually remove vines. The Historic Congressional Cemetery in Washington uses goats to keep its grassy areas clear of invasive plants.

They have also become popular among transportation departments that need to maintain grassy medians and land management agencies looking to cut down on invasive plants like cheatgrass that can lead to more wildfires.

As an added bonus, the goats leave behind fertilizer that helps the native plants grow.

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