Operation Goat Munch back for second straight year in Haddon Township
HADDON TOWNSHIP, N.J. (CBS) -- In New Jersey, leaders of a recreational area have come up with a clever way to get rid of weeds. They've hired a group of goats.
It's happening at Saddler's Woods, a historic 25-acre tract of woods in the middle of a suburban area in Haddon Township.
Across the street from a tall apartment building, amid the traffic noise and the roar of airplanes overhead, sits an urban oasis in Saddler's Woods, where a herd of goats grazes peacefully.
"I love 'em," Jim Mercurio said. "Any time that nature can be in the metropolis—well, it's not a metropolis, but you know, in with all these cars and stuff, I think it's really neat."
Back for its second year, Operation Goat Munch brings in 10 goats from a farm in New York to eat the weeds and poison ivy that are taking over the small patch of woods.
"They are eating a variety of invasive species, so they eat garlic mustard, multiflora rose, and japanese nutwood. basically, all the baddies in the wood we're trying to get rid of," Janet Goehner-Jacobs, the executive director of Saddler's Woods, said.
She added the goats are being rented for about $35,000.
Goehner-Jacobs says some of the goats were rescued from abusive petting zoos. Others are retired milking goats. All of them getting a new leash on life."
"It's really interesting to see the community come together around the goats," Goehner-Jacobs said.
The project creates an opportunity for complete strangers to form a bond.
Dozens of people came to say hi to the goats on Mother's Day.
"I'd like to see more of this. This is another example of natural maintenance. We're not using pesticides. We're not using something dangerous," Brian Connolly said.
"I think they're really cool and hopefully they'll eat a lot of this overgrowth," Nancy Mercurio said. "They look pretty hungry."
The goats spend 15 to 16 hours a day feeding. They'll have to go back to their farm sometime in June or July, but until then families will continue to enjoy watching them work.
