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Sherman A1

(38,958 posts)
Wed Aug 12, 2020, 02:12 PM Aug 2020

Mark Twain National Forest Turns To Goats To Manage Invasive Plants

Removing nonnative plants from the glades and fields in a vast forest can be expensive and harmful to the environment.

That’s why Mark Twain National Forest is deploying a herd of goats to eat their way out of the problem.

Plants like blackberries and kudzu can turn a field from a grassy habitat for turkeys and quail into an overgrown thicket.

“They create a large canopy. They compete for nutrients. And then they push out and eliminate a lot of the desirable native species that we have,” said Brian Davidson, Botany and Invasive Species program manager at the Mark Twain forest.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2020-08-12/mark-twain-national-forest-turns-to-goats-to-manage-invasive-plants

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Mark Twain National Forest Turns To Goats To Manage Invasive Plants (Original Post) Sherman A1 Aug 2020 OP
That's such great news! WhiteTara Aug 2020 #1
much love sent to the goats! demigoddess Aug 2020 #2
At the beginning of summer the town where I live had 2 major fires two weeks apart, primarily fed in2herbs Aug 2020 #3

WhiteTara

(29,676 posts)
1. That's such great news!
Wed Aug 12, 2020, 02:40 PM
Aug 2020

There was so much activism around the plan to pour deadly chemicals on the non-natives. Looks like they got the messages.

in2herbs

(2,942 posts)
3. At the beginning of summer the town where I live had 2 major fires two weeks apart, primarily fed
Wed Aug 12, 2020, 04:20 PM
Aug 2020

by globe chamomile, aka stinknet. Thousands of acres where the desert once existed now gone. Myself and a few neighbors looked into hiring goats to eat the stinknet but our research concluded that even goats won't eat it. I did notice, however, that when it dies the horses ate it, so maybe goats will eat dead stinknet, too. Maybe there's a job opportunity for a landscaper with goats?? All I know is that there is far too much stinknet in my town to control by spraying.

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