Goats Munch Away at Invasive Plants
- Rolling Ridge
- Mar 25
- 2 min read
When walking the Rolling Ridge Conservancy land, if you pay careful attention, you can frequently see where prior houses and other human infrastructure stood just by the plants that dominate the area. Many of these plants are considered invasive, brought by the people who inhabited the land or moving in through their own initiative, taking advantage of human disturbances. These invasive plants include stiltgrass, garlic mustard, greenbrier, barberry, multiflora rose, wineberry, butterfly bush (Spirea), mile-a-minute vine, honeysuckle, tree of heaven (Ailanthus), and oriental bittersweet. Many of these plants thrive in their adopted geographic area because the local animals have not evolved to consume them, while potentially competitive native plants are overgrazed by the native whitetail deer population.
Rolling Ridge Conservancy is experimenting with using goat herbivory to mitigate the spread of invasive plants in some of these areas. Thanks to a grant from the Two Rivers Giving Circle of the Eastern West Virginia Community Foundation, we have been able to outfit a herd of six goats with GPS collars to see if the goats will help slow the spread of these invasive plant species from areas where the problem plants are most dense.
If you are hiking on the Rolling Ridge Trails this spring, you may encounter these goats (and their guardian dog) in particular areas such as near the chimney on the Niles Cabin Trail. The goats will be wearing collars that track their locations and chime to tell the goats when they are reaching the edge of their designated area. While visiting the conservancy, you can see where the goats are and what area they are grazing by visiting: https://grazingmap.nofence.no/.
Please become acquainted with the goat gardening of these adorable weed eaters and appreciate their contribution to the management of invasives, a critical element of native species rewilding.
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