This story originally appeared in East Greenwich News, a nonprofit, digital newsroom dedicated to covering the town and nearby neighborhoods. Read more at EastGreenwichNews.com.

EAST GREENWICH, R.I. — When the board of Glenwood Cemetery wanted to clear out some of the underbrush from the overgrown part of the cemetery, a volunteer had an idea: goats. The volunteer told Phyllis DeSalvo, Glenwood treasurer, about Sanctuary of Hope, a Rhode Island nonprofit farm animal rescue and sanctuary.

A phone call to the farm was all it took. Fourteen goats arrived in July. DeSalvo said it’s been wonderful. 

“It’s like nature taking care of nature,” she said. “It’s just perfect. They’re doing a great job.”

The goat herder is Andrea Vaughan. She stays with the goats while they are on a job and knows the names of each of the goats. She sleeps in the front of the bus and has a small refrigerator and stove so she can eat. The goats sleep in the back or under the bus. 

They go to bed when the sun goes down, according to Vaughan. “They get the zoomies and they run around and they argue with each other and then they settle down,” she said. Yes, sometimes they butt heads too.

The money raised through these jobs helps feed the goats through the winter, Vaughan said. Goats are well known for eating just about anything. Vaughan said they’ve even managed to get her away from the front of the bus a couple of times so they can sneak into her space and steal some of her food.

DeSalvo did ask the police to ride by periodically at night to check on Vaughan, “because you’re out here by yourself,” DeSalvo said to Vaughan.

The sanctuary has 60 more goats, along with other farm animals. It was founded by Wayne Pitman and Jackie Magnan; Pitman is also a goat herder like Vaughan. During the winter the goats stay at the farm and eat hay since there is no undergrowth for them to eat. They start “goatscaping” in May and the work lasts into November. The money raised from goatscaping helps keep the sanctuary going.

DeSalvo said the goats have provided a glimpse into Glenwood Cemetery’s past. 

“We just had a lot of trees cleared out last year,” she said, “and we’ve been finding stones from the 1600s. They were buried for years and years and years. I don’t know why this part [of the cemetery] was kept up and not the rest of it.”

The goats have provided more clearance. DeSalvo said she hopes to have them back.