Las Cruces gets goats to gobble up overgrown vegetation, clear up Burn Lake

Burn Lake in Las Cruces might not have any water in it, but it’s filled overgrown vegetation.

The dried lake needed to be cleared out in case it rains, so the city found an unusual way of removing the brush: goats.

So now, 80 goats are roaming around lake off of I-10, and will do nothing but eat and sleep for the next 120 days.

They’re in a safe environment, although one might occasionally get its head caught in the fence.

The goats are natural weed eaters, so they’re being used to clean up all the excess tumble weeds and vegetation in and around the lake. Using the goats, city officials said, is better for the environment, and staff was relieved that the goats could get the job done.

“They’ll take out brush all the way down to the ground level and so we don’t have to use chemicals,” said Mark Johnston, director of Parks and Recreation. “I don’t have to put my staff in areas that’s may be kind of unsafe. And when the goats get done eating they’ve eaten the roots systems of many things so it saves us hours and hours of labor of grubbing.”

The goats were released two weeks ago. Clearing the lake was supposed to cost $60,000, but the city said by using the goats will cut the cost in half.