The goats in Pittsburgh's Frick Park do more than just graze. They help the environment.
It's a tradition at Frick Park that goes back nearly a decade, but it always brings in a herd.
Every year, a group of goats comes in for a few weeks of good eating, but it's more than just a buffet; it's a very important job to help the park.
"Goats are eating machines, you know? If it's green and leafy, they'll just about eat almost anything," said Brandon McCracken, the ecological restoration manager with the Pittsburgh Parks.
They aren't just out for a Friday lunch date; they're at Frick Park for an annual assignment, and it's one that benefits them as well as the park.
"We moved 10 goats in," Maggie Rose, the field supervisor with Allegheny Goatscape, said. "They're all Nubians; they're here to eat the invasive species that are here in Frick Park."
"The goats are experts at helping to be the ones to clear out some of those very dense areas," added McCracken
They got to work almost immediately, and this is no small job. The goats will have a lot of ground to cover that includes multiflora rose, border privet, and amor honeysuckle - all there to chow down on.
It's also not a case of dining and dashing; they'll be in Frick Park for a while until the job is done.
"An area like this is probably about an acre, and it should take the goats between 10 and 14 days," Rose explained. "We have three sites here at Frick Park that they will eat through before they're finished, so it will be about a month before they're done here."
Once they're done, it will give the Clayton Hill section of the park nearly four and a half acres of total space. That will allow them to add more to the thousands of native trees and shrubs.
"They're helping pave the way for future tree plantings," McCracken said. "For that to have happened, either people - or, in this case, goats - need to help us pave the way when we've got areas that are almost entirely invasive plants, so they're a great help to our projects."
Later this fall, a group of students from High School Urban Ecostewards will plant 100 trees in that space cleared out by goats. In total, there will be more space for up to 600 more trees and shrubs to be grown.
