Kaukauna’s goats are coming baaaack!
About 15 goats from Mulberry Lane Farm of Woodville will arrive June 9 to eat buckthorn, garlic mustard, honeysuckle and other invasive species at 1000 Islands Environmental Center as an environmentally friendly alternative to the application of herbicides. The goats will remain on site until June 23.
Kaukauna has used the goats to control unwanted vegetation, including poison ivy, in the 1000 Islands Conservancy Zone since 2018. They typically graze for two weeks in June and then again in late September or early October.
Bonnie Keyes, who owns Mulberry Lane Farm along with her husband, Pat, said goats quickly will clear foliage from an area. There is a noticeable difference after one day, she said.
“If you keep stripping a plant of its leaves, eventually it dies,” Keyes told The Post-Crescent. “It’s not just one time, and it’s done. They’re going back every year to weaken that plant.”
In addition to removing invasive plants, goats fertilize the soil with their droppings. The goats are fenced while grazing.
Mayor Tony Penterman will declare June as Kaukauna Invasive Species Control Month to highlight the role goats play in managing the health of 1000 Islands. The proclamation will recognize Bonnie and Pat Keyes for loaning the goats to Kaukauna as a community service. It also will recognize the volunteers who look after the goats.
“While many nature centers, parks departments and other organizations hire outside companies to bring in goats or sheep for invasive plant control, the Kaukauna goats have always been and still are fully cared for and managed by these volunteers and the people from our community who volunteer as goat watchers throughout the time when the animals are working on site,” 1000 Islands naturalist Brad Garrity said.
The public is encouraged to visit 1000 Islands between 8 a.m. and 5:30 p.m., weather permitting, to see the goats in action.
Kaukauna is not alone in using animals to control invasive plants.
Neenah hired Wooly Green Grazers of Center to bring about 50 sheep to Carpenter Preserve on the city’s south side. The sheep, along with a dozen goats from Van Acres Homestead of Greenville, will graze a 6-acre prairie east of Kingswood Drive and south of Neenah Creek periodically throughout the summer.
Roxie Emunson, co-owner of Wooly Green Grazers, said studies have shown that after sheep and goats chew, digest and excrete invasive plants, less than 10% of the consumed seeds remain viable.
Contact Duke Behnke at 920-993-7176 or dbehnke@gannett.com. Follow him on X at @DukeBehnke.
This article originally appeared on Appleton Post-Crescent: They’re baaaack! Goats will return to Kaukauna’s 1000 Islands Environmental Center to eat invasive plants
Reporting by Duke Behnke, Appleton Post-Crescent / Appleton Post-Crescent
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