City begins using goats to help clear weeds

Wednesday, May 1, 2013
Mayor Tom Rist watches as the city's newest "employees" start to clear an area overgrown by weeds and other vegetation in a storm water pond next to American Legion Boulevard.

Mountain Home officials launched an effort last Wednesday aimed at helping control weeds and overgrown brush in hard-to-reach areas of the city.

More than two dozen goats were released in the storm water pond area on American Legion Boulevard next to the Red Pavilion Restaurant.

Within a matter of seconds, the small herd went to work nibbling on the grass and weeds that had overgrown the empty pond. The city uses ponds like this to divert storm water away from residential areas following major storms but are normally empty.

The city started looking at the goat-powered initiative about a year ago, but the effort didn't start gaining traction until recently. According to Mayor Tom Rist, this "eco-friendly plan" will allow the city to keep overgrown vegetation and weeds under control in areas where it's extremely tough to bring in movers and other equipment.

The pond on American Legion Boulevard, for example, has a sloping pathway on one side to allow vehicles to enter. However, the pond's steep walls make it extremely difficult to keep the vegetation under control, said Shirley Batchelor, who heads the city's wastewater department.

"It's very hard to mow because it has such a steep bank," she said.

This means city crews would need to cut down the weeds and grass by hand. But that's not a problem for the goats, who are able to scale the walls without much effort.

Cities across the United States have already used goats to control encroaching weeds and tall brush. In California, for example, cities use them to keep tall brush under control as part of their wildfire protection plans.

According to Donnie LaBelle, who owns the animals currently grazing the city pond, goats have some unique advantages. Unlike other animals, goats prefer to roam across a wide area and nibble a little bit of vegetation at a time before they move elsewhere. Other grazing animals tend to stay in one spot and mow the vegetation down to the ground, which often keeps it from growing back.

Goats have other advantages over other grazing animals, LaBelle added. When they eat weeds and other noxious plants, the goat's digestive system breaks down or destroys the seeds from these plants so they don't come back.

In addition to having their own unique personalities, some goats have personal tastes for particular plants, LaBelle said. For example, some of them enjoy dandelions while others prefer other types of weeds, in particular goathead thorns. In Mountain Home, those thorny weeds represent a persistent problem for animals and people, the mayor said.

City officials expect the small herd to remain in the fenced-on flood control pond area for the time being. Depending on the success of this initial effort, the city has a number of other areas in mind to use this form of goat-powered lawn care.

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