BUFFALO, N.Y. — For one week, goats will be working at the Richardson Olmsted Campus doing what they do best-- Eating.
Jennifer Zietler of Let's Goat Buffalo, brings her Goats to places that have a problem invasive species of plants. The goats are hired to eat all day long.
"They are literally going into an area and they are going to eat all day every day," Zietler says. The goats made their debut at Como Lake Park earlier this summer. They ate an acre of Japanese Knotweed for a month. They did such a great job the Richardson Olmsted campus decided to hire them instead of using herbicide.
"A lot of people don't realize we have 42 acres of grounds to deal with," Corey Fabian-Barrett said. "It's a historic landscape and we don't want to do anything particularly damaging."
The goats will be on the campus for about a week eating away at the unwanted plants. Zietler says goats have many stomachs that sterilize the plant species that keeps it from growing back, making them great workers for projects like these. More than 100 years ago, livestock used to roam the campus.
"Japaneses knot weed seems to love growing really close to the building,"Fabian-Barrett said. "The root system grows incredibly deep and it gets up into the floor of the building and could damage the masonry and structurally damage the building which means we can't find uses to it."
The goats will be in a gated area and eat during the day and then stay in a trailer at night.
On Wednesday night people can come meet the goats and learn more about "goatscaping" at 6pm at the Richardson Olmsted Campus.
The goats are housed at Alpine Made Farm in South Whales. Owner Kerry Planck, raises goats and uses their milk to make all natural skin care products. Once the goats are retired from making milk, they live out their days doing what they do best-- eating.
