Amazing Graze: Goats back to work in the river valley
By Lethbridge Herald on June 27, 2023.
A group of 200 goats graze Tuesday morning in Indian Battle Park, back for another season as part of a City initiative to control invasive weeds.
Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-GuzmanAlejandra Pulido-Guzman – LETHBRIDGE HERALD – apulido@lethbridgeherald.com
The goats are back for their fifth season to remove invasive weeds in the river valley. They will be splitting their time grazing between the Alexander Wilderness Park and Indian Battle Park.
Parks Natural Resources Co-ordinator with the City of Lethbridge, Jackie Cardinal said the 200 goats are targeting weeds such as leafy spurge, wormwood and thistle.
“They come every summer, usually late spring early summer, to do their first round of grazing, then they’ll come back later in the summer when the plants had a chance to re-bloom,” said Cardinal.
She said the goats are a great asset as they take care of the weeds without disturbing the area.
“Our river valleys are very sensitive, we are right near the river, and we don’t want to use a lot of chemicals or a lot of mechanical removal for weed species or vegetation management, so the goats are great. They come in, they target the weeds that we need them to target, and they don’t disturb anything else,” said Cardinal.
She explained that leafy spurge, which is the main weed the goats are targeting, spreads through seeds and rhizomes in the ground and because it doesn’t have any natural predators or pests it runs unchecked.
“There is nothing that controls it on its own, because it is an invasive that was introduced many years ago, so having the goats down here to target it helps the natural ecosystem get stronger and rebound from the presence of that weed,” said Cardinal.
She said that even though success is hard to measure when it comes to the goats removing weeds, something that she considers a win from it is the fact that more native flowers are blooming.
“When you walk through the parks after the goats have been through it, you don’t see fields of yellow flowers, you see the natural grasses. We’ve seen more wild bergamot growing, more cactus blooming,” said Cardinal.
She said they were probably there before but overshadowed by the invasive weeds.
Cardinal said that in the last five years of having the goats in the river valley, over 750 hectares of invasive weeds have been grazed.
This year among the 200 goats, many are just babies that still drink milk while grazing. They are hard to miss while visiting the river valley, as they are what Cardinal calls “very chatty.”
The goats are managed by a herder and dogs that are trained to move and protect the goats from predators.
Cardinal said residents are welcome to take pictures of the goats, and the herders could answer questions they have, but they are also being reminded that dogs are to be leashed in the Indian battle park, especially around the goats.
“Dogs can get carried away and think they are herders, and they end up scaring the goats,” said Cardinal.
She also reminds residents that dogs and bicycles are not allowed at Alexander Wilderness Park, and while the goats and her dogs are friendly toward people, residents are asked not to pet them.
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19-18
Well, we will at least feed the cougar !