Healing Hooves wins Green Washington Award from Seattle magazine

Washington Ag Today October 13, 2009 Healing Hooves, an Edwall, Washington based company that uses goats for natural vegetation management was recently named the winner in the natural resource category of Seattle Business Monthly Magazine’s 2009 Green Washington Awards.

The company was founded by Craig and Sue Lani Madsen who employ a herd of about 240 goats that are used for targeted grazing, usually to control weeds or invasive species. Sue explains what happened at the magazine’s awards dinner.

Madsen: “It was pretty cool. We were sitting there at the table listening them announce the runner-up in the category and we thought maybe we might get runner-up. And the runner-up was a bio-tech firm doing at this great stuff with bamboo that grows rapidly that helps control erosion on hillsides. We looked at each other and said at least we had a nice dinner. And then they started talking about goats and we realized that we had won and it was a pretty cool feeling.”

The Madsen’s goats are no strangers to the Seattle area.

Madsen: “Quite a number of our projects have been in King County for a couple of reasons. The land value is higher. Obviously the vegetation is dense. And there are a lot of steep hillsides, riparian areas, areas where there really are not a lot of options. You can‘t get in there with equipment. As one fellow said if you can find a hand crew to come in and come one day, they don‘t come back the next. It is really hard work and it is much easier for the goats to take care of it.”

You can learn more about the Madsen’s business at healing hooves.com

I’m Bob Hoff and that’s Washington Ag Today on the Northwest Ag Information Network.