NEW ROCHELLE, NY — Watching a grounds crew weed out invasive species isn’t generally an enthralling proposition, but the new groundkeepers at Ward Acres Park are already drawing a crowd.
The Ward Acres Conservancy and City of New Rochelle Department of Parks and Recreation are employing an innovative method to remove unwanted and invasive vegetation in Ward Acres Park. For approximately five days, beginning Monday, a herd of 30 goats have been deployed to eat the underbrush before, um, “recycling.”
“When Ward Acres Conservancy Board brought this idea to us, we immediately recognized it as a fun way to demonstrate an environmentally responsible way to solve a big problem in the park,” Parks Commissioner Vincent Parise said. “We see it as a teachable moment for all New Rochelle residents and an opportunity to possibly visit a park you’ve never been to with your friends and family.”
The initiative is funded by Friends of New Rochelle Parks—Westchester Parks Foundation, who tapped Fat and Sassy Goats from Rhinebeck to supply and supervise the goats.
“We’re trying all sorts of environmentally friendly approaches to invasive plant management within the Park, and we’re hoping this ‘biting-edge’ experiment will be a resounding success and that we can bring them back to the Park,” Steve Cadenhead, Ward Acres Conservancy President said. “For me, they’re also a lot more fun to watch than a team of landscapers.”
Balch brought her industrious goats to a temporarily fenced area of the park where they will live and work until the job is complete. The fencing is solar-powered, child- and pet-friendly, and is designed to contain the goats and keep them separated from dogs and people, and safe from predators.
Balch treats her four-legged employees well and lovingly manages all aspects of the goats’ health and well-being.
According to the company, goats are the “Swiss army knife” of nature, offering a full-service reclamation at the job site. They eat undesirable vegetation, ferment it into nitrogen-rich manure pellets and aerate the soil with their hooves. Balch explains that the process helps foster better long-term health at the properties they tend.
Other communities in Hudson Valley have also used goats as a solution to vegetation management. The town of Bedford and Harvey School used goats to manage an infestation of invasive vines on their property with remarkable results. Before the goats arrived, massive mounds of porcelain berry had overrun much of the Harvey School property along Route 22. The goats ate away at the highly invasive, woody, climbing vines that outcompete native plants and pollinators and choke the life from trees.
The goats don’t spend too much time in the same spot ensuring that they aren’t tempted to overgraze.
Though goats don’t eat everything, they naturally prefer “pest” plants which threaten woodlands. Goat digestion naturally ferments the seeds they ingest, which makes sure those pest plants don’t soon return.
There’s still time to see New Rochelle’s newest parks employees at work. Petting of the goats (and any other parks department workers) is prohibited, but the goats can be observed up close from behind the fence. The goats are along Broadfield Road across from William B. Ward Elementary School, just north of the entrance to the dog park.