Paris hires four black sheep to be eco-friendly lawn mowers

In Paris Employs a Few Black Sheep to Tend, and Eat, a City Field, The New York Times reports on a sustainable idea: Ditch the loud and gasoline-guzzling lawn mowers and try four small but hungry Ouessant sheep instead. They are less expensive than a machine and much quieter, too.

“Mayor Bertrand Delanoë has made the environment a priority since his election in 2001, with popular bike- and car-sharing programs, an expanded network of designated lanes for bicycles and buses, and an enormous project to pedestrianize the banks along much of the Seine.

“The sheep, which are to mow (and, not inconsequentially, fertilize) an airy half-acre patch in the 19th Arrondissement are intended in the same spirit. City Hall refers to the project as “eco-grazing,” and it notes that the four ewes will prevent the use of noisy, gas-guzzling mowers and cut down on the use of herbicides.”

“I can imagine this very easily in London and New York… even Tokyo,” professes Fabienne Giboudeaux, Paris City Hall’s director of Green Spaces to France24. “And why not have them at the Eiffel Tower?”

Watch this next: The Goat Brigade: Preventing Wildfires in Southern California.

via Grist.