Eco-goats trying to graze the way to help Hamilton Naturalists’ Club restore native species
Who ya gonna call? Where will you turn?
When your region is haunted by invasive species that have been supplanting native vegetation for centuries; when your natural environment is being bumpily poltergeist-ed by spectres of buckthorn, honeysuckle, multi flora roses and dog-strangling vines, like so much ecological noise, what's it going to be?
Goat busters.
In this case, the goats are doing the busting.
Eco-goats James, Dean and J.J. might not be Peter, Ray and Egon with their nuclear backpacks. But, with only their teeth and their appetites as equipment, they are helping to exorcise the alien plasma possessing more and more of our Carolinian forest environment since the dawn of colonization.
Goats are increasingly being recognized as invasive species management champions," says the Hamilton Naturalists' Club's website.
Capricorn rising. And grazing.
It's an experiment, a promising, innovative one, whereby the three male cashmeres are set loose to roam within a large penned area where the invasive species are especially dominant.
There, in their fenced-in all-you-can-eat buffet in west Burlington, a patch of the 53 acres of protected land in the Sheila Dunn Dooley Sanctuary, between the escarpment and the RBG, they have at it with the undergrowth.
The goats - to borrow a line from a local chant - eat 'em raw, 'em being plants and shrubs and whatnot that were never part of the Carolinian forest system of which we're part. The invasion of these invasive species has been so widespread and insidious that we often don't think of them as invasive, so commonplace are they - certain varieties of rose, vetch, pine, lilac and others.
The hope is that the invasive species will, being eroded through constant interruption of their growth, start dying off. The greater hop is that that will make space for reintroduction of native species, like dogwood, oak, rue and much else says Jen Baker, land trust manager, Hamilton Naturalists' Club. She's one of the leads in the Eco-Goats project.
They didn't tell me in school that I would be hanging out with goats as part of my work," she jokes.
But she loves it. And it's not just Jen. The HNC has engaged two students, Emmet Blanchett from McMaster University (environmental science) and Leah Suk from Niagara College, to live with the goats on the grounds of the Sheila Dunn Dooley Sanctuary.
They stay overnight several times a week, monitoring the goats' progress, what they eat, how much. They sleep in tents near the shelter where the goats sleep.
They have more comfortable arrangements than we do," jokes Leah.
The project, now in its second year, grew out of the commitment, imagination and resources of several people but let's start with Sheelah Dunn Dooley. She and husband Martin Dooley bought the private land where the project is taking place and donated it to the Hamilton Naturalists Club. Conjoined to that 52 acres are 30 or so others that the HNC arranged to lease through Infrastructure Ontario.
It's an area that stretches roughly between Hillsdale Avenue, curling into Snake Road, and Old York Road, and it also features a deep drop to a beautiful ravine where the native species are doing much better than at the higher elevation.
Individuals can do something," says Sheela. Even if it's in their own backyards or if they get together and chip in protect land."
After she acquired the sanctuary land she sought guidance about what to do with it, other than preserving it as nature and habitat? The HNC is always coming up with ideas and Jen thought of goats.
She knows someone, Wayne Terryberry, who raises them.
The goats spend hours a day lunching on the land, then napping as their several stomachs (goats like cows have an elaborate digestive system) digest their intake, then eating some more.
It's not just the goats, though, for people are invited on to the site to observe what is going on, to donate and volunteer if they can. The native species restoration effort includes the work of people planting seeds, using extractigator to pull out buckthorn, using linoleum cutting knives to girdle" invasive thicket growth and both donating and putting up fencing and other structures.
The project is already being funded and supported by several organizations such as Niagara College and McMaster, but there is also an active and ongoing fundraising effort to keep up the work they're doing and keep the goats on the job.
The eco-goats project organizers are hoping to top last year's efforts and raise $30,000 or more by the end of June.
To donate visit Hamilton Naturalists' Club website (hamiltonnature.org) or go to canadahelps.org/en/charities/hamilton-naturalists-club/?mprompt=1
Jeff Mahoney is a Hamilton-based reporter and columnist covering culture and lifestyle stories, commentary and humour for The Spectator.jmahoney@thespec.com