City enlists unexpected helpers to battle fast-growing invasive threat: 'We are doing a full assessment'

A Texas city is making headlines after bringing in unorthodox pest controllers. Officials tapped into the appetite of a herd of goats to remove an invasive plant.

According to Fox 4 Dallas-Fort Worth, the city of Dallas hired 280 goats to eat privet plants across 16 acres of land near a highway.

The city's parks and recreation department announced the project in April, saying it would take place over 11 days. The plan was to have a shepherd guide the goats along 1 to 1.5 acres at a time and install an electric fence that could be moved daily.

The project looks to clear out the privet without the use of noisy equipment that disturbs neighbors' peace and burns fossil fuels.

Privet has long plagued North Texas. In fact, one species of the plant covers 2.5 million forest acres across the Southern United States, per Department of Agriculture data shared by Green Source DFW.

The problem with privet is that it's extremely adaptable and can grow practically anywhere, often crowding out native plants. Overgrowth of the plant near roads can make driving dangerous.

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"To help improve the overall visibility to improve the safety out here," Dallas Park and Recreation conservation manager Brett Johnson told NBC DFW. "Secondly … we want to make sure we're reducing our fuel loads and ladder fuel in case we ever have a fire going out here."

Dallas has previously worked with goats to control invasive species. The water utility department launched a pilot campaign in 2023 to allow goats to graze on vegetation along creeks and in floodway management areas.

"It's the first time we're trying what we call an environmentally friendly program. We are doing a full assessment of the results hoping to expand it citywide," Eduardo Valerio, assistant director of stormwater operations with Dallas Water Utilities, told WFAA at the time.

The project benefits multiple parties. The city is able to clear out invasive privet and potentially restore native plant species to the area to improve residents' daily lives. And the goats get a tasty snack as well as the label "environmental heroes."