Sheep vs. robot ‘mow off’ at Earth Day event highlights ways to curb carbon emissions 

This year’s Atherton Earth Day celebration, on a sunny Sunday afternoon, featured the ultimate showdown: a “mow off” between sheep and a robotic lawnmower. It was a battle to see who could do a better job clearing out weeds and grass. The winner? The sheep of course (in a vote of 103-to-20 of attendees).

The competition, though mostly a popularity contest, was aimed at drawing attention to alternative yard clearing technologies that emit fewer greenhouse gases. Sheep and battery-operated robotic lawnmowers can reduce environmental damages to open spaces and air-quality, while contributing to healthier soil, according to the town. It also was a means of drawing attention to the upcoming ban on gas-powered leaf blowers in town, and the state’s ban on the sale of gas-powered lawn equipment, on July 1.

The University of California at Davis Sheepmowers Project supplied the sheep and the robotic lawnmower, a battery-operated Husqvarna (which is guided via satellite, giving the robot precision directions within 1-2 centimeters), for the town’s third annual festival on April 21.

“Not to say everyone needs to buy sheep,” said UC Davis Landscape Architecture Assistant Professor Anna Haven Kiers on Monday, April 22, who pitched her grazing sheep to voters by saying, “Look how sad the robot is in the corner!” But she notes there’s a business model for groups, like neighborhoods or street blocks, to rent out small flocks of sheep. “It was unbelievable how engaged people were — everyone wasn’t all AI / robotic, Silicon Valley only.”

The day also featured the return of the tongue-in-cheek electric leaf-blower bowling competition between town police officers, council members and local firefighters, vegetarian food trucks and the chance to hold a live beetle. Although the town didn’t take a headcount of attendees, some 553 people RSVPed “yes” to the event as of the evening of April 21, according to Deputy City Manager/City Clerk Anthony Suber.

Event returns to Holbrook-Palmer Park

Atherton brought the event back to the place of its inception in 2022 — to Holbrook-Palmer Park at 150 Watkins Ave. Organizers scaled the festival down from a larger event last year at Menlo-Atherton High School that was co-hosted by East Palo Alto and Menlo Park. (Menlo Park hosted its event in East Palo Alto on April 13 this year.)

New this year: the Atherton Arts Foundation’s Youth Art competition. The Atherton Disaster Preparedness Team offered hands-on demonstrations of how to prepare for the increasing number of power outages and storms. Children patiently lined up to learn from Menlo Park Fire Protection District firefighters how to properly an extinguisher to put out a fire. 

“Climate change is already being felt in our community with record storms, temperatures, smoke and bad air days,” said Mayor Diana Hawkins-Manuelian in a Monday email. “Mother nature is giving us a wake up call and we all have to make changes in what we buy and the way we live. Atherton Earth Day Festival was a fun way to educate and inspire and build community.”

‘Climate change is already being felt in our community with record storms, temperatures, smoke and bad air days. Mother nature is giving us a wake up call and we all have to make changes in what we buy and the way we live.’

Atherton Mayor Diana Hawkins-Manuelian

Competitions call attention to ways to reduce emissions 

Ken Frederick, an Atherton Environmental Programs Committee member, reached out to Haven Kiers of Davis because he was really interested in electric mowers and the idea of pulling in sheep for the event. 

Before starting her project, Haven Kiers had read articles about sheep mowing lawns in cool places, like under the Eiffel Tower in Paris. She wanted to know if the animals could fertilize and control pests as well as, or better than, conventional landscaping devices.

“I was like ‘this is the greatest thing ever,’” she said. She presented the idea of bringing it to UC Davis through her original job as a design and project manager for UC Davis’ Arboretum and Public Garden. “Of course it’s Davis, it’s an ag school, we have to have sheep mowing the lawn.”

The project came to fruition when she joined the Landscape Architecture Department as an assistant professor. Sheepmowers seeks to answer a number of questions: Do they cut the lawn as well as lawnmowers? Who normally does this type of labor?

Haven Kiers found benefits beyond what she was expecting. College students are more relaxed while watching sheep graze, according to her research paper published in International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health in 2023. There are aesthetic benefits; the sheep create a “pastoral landscape in the middle of campus.” 

She envisions sheep cutting back on overgrowth grasses that might contribute to wildfire risk, at vineyards or at solar farms.

The project is also about teaching people about sustainability and that not everything about the environment is “doom and gloom.”

To learn more about other activities and vendors at the event, go to ci.atherton.ca.us/625/Earth-Day.

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