About 800 goats roamed and snacked on weeds to help rejuvenate natural habitat near Kerry Wood Nature Centre on Friday.
"They don't look like many, especially when they're all bunched up together. But we have a site near Fort Saskatchewan where we have to hike 1.5 km, and they do a nose-to-tail line and it's an incredibly long line," laughed Jeanette Hall, owner of BAAH'D Plant Management & Reclamation, while herding the friendly goats in a fenced field across the road from the Red Deer River.
She said thatching was one of the main problems goats were addressing on Friday that had been so thick it made walking impossible. But the goats have been able to thin out the thatch after a few visits which will allow the ground to warm up in the spring to give early germinating grass seed a chance to germinate.
"We're starting now to see the impact of the goats. It can take quite a few years to see it come to fruition because we're dealing with natural succession. It's an evolving landscape."
And as cute as the goats are, they don't perform magic, she added.
"You can go into any goat field and find weeds. What's unique is the way we're managing and manipulating the goats."
The goats breakdown thatch by trampling it where needed, providing some fertilizer while on job, and eating specific weeds, like Canadian thistle.
"We have to manage and make sure they all have balanced diets, as well as influence what they want to eat. If we know there are particular plants that have certain minerals, we'll make sure that the plants they're getting a week leading up don't have the minerals so they're craving it."
Hall said her old goats have the most exposure to weeds and they also teach the others what's tasty.
BAAH'D's oldest working goat is 27 years old and the youngest is just a few months.
Ken Lehman, ecological services operations co-ordinator with the city, said every year the city looks for more areas where goats can be used to reduce weeds and revitalize areas that are environmentally sensitive or on steep slopes instead of tractors.
"They're pretty good at moving through a forested area, through a natural landscape with low impact. That's why we like them," Lehman said.
