VIDEO: The Metro West Fire Department is renting 50 goats from Goats on the Go to help with land management for a prairie behind its fire station 3 in Wildwood. The department has typically rented machinery to control the overgrowth, but it determined renting goats would be more cost-effective and environmentally friendly.
โFor really invasive species like poison ivy and honeysuckle, theyโre really good for that,โ said Assistant Chief John Bradley, Metro West Fire Protection District. The local affiliate of Goats on the Go is operated by Emma Enright. She said the goats are doing what they love to do.
โTheyโre able to naturally clean up the area and get rid of those weeds that we might not want necessarily and in an environmentally friendly way,โ Enright said. The goatโs benefits go beyond grazing. โTheir hooves, when theyโre walking around, they aerate the soil,โ said Bradley.
Enright added, โTheir stomachs completely destroy the seed of what theyโre eating, so when they leave their little pellets behind, itโs planting a natural fertilizer.โ Bradley said the area where the goats are grazing is also a migration path for monarch butterflies and bluebirds. He said the goat grazing will allow native plants to flourish.
