We actually have no problem with the fact that the feds hired a herd of goats to eat the brush around a courthouse in Pasadena, California. But the bureaucrats’ breathless description of their actions on the government website is a hoot.
We actually have no problem with the fact that the feds hired a herd of goats to eat the brush around a courthouse in Pasadena, California. They probably did a much better job than any morons who would have been hired otherwise.
But the bureaucrats’ breathless description of their actions on the government website is a hoot:
Don't be surprised to see a headline that reads, "Government goats demand government cheese"
The extreme overgrowth and underbrush on the hillside behind the Richard H. Chambers U.S. Courthouse in Pasadena, California, prompted GSA’s Pacific Rim Region property management to take quick action to avoid summer fires.
Ultimately, the choice was easy: Use a herd of goats. The decision meant a cost-saving to taxpayers over hiring manual labor and proved to be better for the environment than bulldozers.
The unusually wet winter and spring caused the overgrowth, which, in California, always means the risk of summer wildfires and grass fires because of tinder underbrush.
The goats are an efficient vegetation management tool, costing thousands less and taking three days vs. a week for manual labor, with few side effects. Unlike bulldozers, used historically for the annual project, goats control brush and weeds without disturbing the grass and soil. They also do not pollute or leave synthetic chemicals that could run off into lakes and streams or be ingested by other animals.
As a result of the GSA’s “quick action,” 127 goat jobs were created or saved.
Unfortunately, the goats have now organized their own government union and despite the fact that the job has been completed and there won’t be any work for the goats until next year, they are rejecting all calls for layoffs.
Just when you think the federal government can’t get any dumber, they top themselves. As they did in this story about the latest green scam in Portland, Oregon.
We predict that this green building will bleed red ink
Just when you think the federal government can’t get any dumber, they top themselves. As they did in this story about the latest green scam in Portland, Oregon.
The New York Times has the green details:
… the federal government plans to plant its own bold garden directly above a downtown plaza. As part of a $133 million renovation, the General Services Administration is planning to cultivate “vegetated fins” that will grow more than 200 feet high on the western facade of the main federal building here, a vertical garden that changes with the seasons and nurtures plants that yield energy savings.
“They will bloom in the spring and summer when you want the shade, and then they will go away in the winter when you want to let the light in,” said Bob Peck, commissioner of public buildings for the G.S.A. “Don’t ask me how you get them irrigated.”
And we’d say irrigation is the least of the problems. Who prunes the growth and harvests the crops?
… Maybe the same folks who wash skyscraper windows, the architects say. Perhaps the exterior concrete panels removed in the renovation could be reused as salmon habitat in a nearby river.
The G.S.A. says the building will use 60 percent to 65 percent less energy than comparable buildings and estimates a savings of $280,000 annually in energy costs. Solar panels could provide up to 15 percent of the building’s power needs. The use of rainwater and low-flow plumbing fixtures will reduce potable water consumption by 68 percent. And energy for lighting will be halved.
Yes, perhaps the building will be pruned by the same folks who wash skyscraper windows. Perhaps.
Or since our agricultural products are all harvested by illegal aliens because that’s a job Americans supposedly won’t do, perhaps the government will have to bring in illegal Sherpa aliens to scale the sides of the building.
And what are the odds that the entire $280,000 in energy savings will be completely eaten up by the cost of harvesting. Not to mention the cost of legal settlements paid out to pedestrians who are injured by falling musk melons.
Your government in action, your tax dollars at work.
