Prospect Park Goats Return This Week

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — A group of weed-eating goats are making their return to Prospect Park some time this week to chomp away at invasive plants that have sprung up in the wake of Hurricane Sandy.

Mary Keehbauch, the Natural Resources Crew Foreperson with the Prospect Park Alliance, wouldn't reveal exactly when these goats will be baaaa-ck — they need some time to settle in before being crowded by park guests — but said it'll be a crew of just four this time, half of the eight that came down last year from Rhinebeck, New York.

"People are constantly stopping us like, 'Are the goats coming back? When will the goats be back? What’s happening with the goats?'" Keehbauch told Patch. "It brought a whole new wave of people into this area of the park that haven’t been here before."

The two targets of the goats' appetites will continue to be English ivy and goutweed, plants that have taken over parts of the Park in recent years. The goats will start in the Vale of Cashmere area, in the northern section of the park and then move south, to Lookout Hill.

Last year, the goat gardeners were way ahead of schedule, clearing a 1.5-acre plot in about six weeks. They came back in August to finish the seasonal job.

"They prefer to eat woody plants, so they would eat the English ivy and the gout weed when there was nothing else left for them to eat," Keehbauch said. "They definitely 'browse' — they don’t really graze like sheep do, they more pick through."

While the goats didn't totally rid the area of unwanted plants last year, they made a significant difference, Keehbauch said. Their constant chomping, combined with a drought, significantly weakened the plants' root systems, which will be attacked by the goats again this year.

"There is a significant difference in the return growth of vegetation in the areas where there were goats and where there were not," Keehbauch said, adding that she's eyeballed about a 50 percent difference between places that were goat-inhabited and not.

Only Max is coming back from last year's herd, Keehbauch said; Diego, Raptor, Charlie Brown, Skittles, Zoya, Olivia and Reese are staying behind.

Max is a black pygmy goat, and the other three will be toggenburgs, a Swiss breed. Last year, Charlie Brown — also a toggenburg — was a particularly effective chewer.

"She was a really good English ivy-eater," Keehbauch said. "We'll see if it was a breed thing or if it was just that Charlie Brown really liked the ivy."

The goats, like last year, will live in an enclosed area of the park as they work away. Park-goers are free to sit and watch them on the job.

To celebrate the return of the goats, the Prospect Park Alliance is holding several events at the Lefferts Historic House on Sunday, May 21, from 1 to 4 p.m. The festivities are free, but the Park is asking for a $3 suggested donation.

Here's what's on the day's agenda, according to the park:

• Wool Carding and Drop Spindle, 1– 4 pm: Learn how to card wool using special tools and how to spin with a drop spindle.
• Spinning Demonstrations, 1–4 pm: Come and meet our resident Spinner, Catherine Conrad and see how she spins wool fibers into thread.
• Parade from the Zoo, 1:30 pm: Join Lefferts staff on a parade from the Zoo
• Felt Balls, 2–4 pm: After the wool is washed and carded, you can try your hand at making a felt ball. Use the wood fibers to shape a ball and see if you can make it bounce!
• Wool Washing, 2–4 pm: After the fleece is shorn from the sheep, the next step is washing it! Help staff clean the fleece and get it ready for felt balls and spinning!

Image: Paul Martinka, courtesy Prospect Park Alliance