FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 

June 20, 2014 

Contact: Rachel Gordon, 415-554-6045

Grazing Goats Chomp Weeds on Twin Peaks Hillside 

Hungry herd prepares hillside for Pride weekend’s Pink Triangle

San Francisco, CA – In preparation for Pride Weekend, San Francisco Public Works commissioned help from a herd of weed-eating goats to clear the Twin Peaks hillside for the annual Pink Triangle installation.

The four-legged crew provides an alternative to machinery and herbicides. They arrived at the edible worksite Thursday evening and are expected to be on the job through the weekend. They will be supervised day and night by human goat herders.

“Thank God for goats. They can navigate the steep terrain nimbly and access areas that our employees would have a much harder time traversing safely to get the job done,” said San Francisco Public Works Director Mohammed Nuru. “Plus, goats are eco-friendly and really fun to see in the middle of San Francisco.”

City Grazing is providing the 50 or so goats, and temporary fencing was erected around the roughly 1-acre site to keep them from wandering away from the Twin Peaks hillside that faces the Castro and downtown San Francisco. The herd is a mix of goat breeds, including Boer, Alpine, Nigerian Dwarf and Pygmy.

“These goats have won the goat lottery. All they do is eat for a living,” said City Grazing manager Genevieve Church.

The hoofed herd provides benefits other than just controlling vegetation: the goats’ poop adds nutrients to the soil, and their urine slows down weed growth.

Volunteers are set to install the huge canvas pink triangle on the Twin Peaks hillside on Saturday, June 28, starting at 7 a.m. The pink triangle, staked to the hillside during Pride weekend, was the identifying symbol that gay men had to wear on their clothing in Nazi concentration camps in the 1930s and into the 1940s. The LGBT community has since taken on the pink triangle as their own symbol of pride.

The large pink triangle has been placed near the top of Twin Peaks every year since 1995.