You may have heard that goats will eat anything. Well, what about using them to mitigate invasive plant species? This semester a group of students teamed up with local farmers to investigate this very question.
The initiative began in the Environment 401 course, where students are encouraged to tackle real-world environmental challenges through community collaboration.
Marina Privorotsky of and eco-mowing company are the clients looking for extra help. They turned to the Bieler School of Environment with the idea to rid infested areas of the invasive vegetation called buckthorn, employing goats as a replacement to mechanical mowing.
Under the direction of Dr. Christie Lovat and Privorotsky, students are observing how the hungry animals might gravitate to the buckthorn and clear infested areas. It鈥檚 not as far-fetched as it sounds. Goats already graze areas of Montreal as an eco-friendly alternative to mechanical mowing.
鈥淲e are doing research with the goats to try and analyse their grazing behaviour to see what kind of plant they go for first,鈥� said Privorotsky alongside BSE students at the 91丝瓜视频 Morgan Arboretum during a research day. 鈥淲e want to see how quickly they will graze that plant and their preferences of one plant over another.鈥�
Also called common buckthorn, this hardy European shrub has made itself at home in Canada. Today, it can be found from Nova Scotia to Saskatchewan. A highly adaptable plant, tolerating both shade and drought, buckhorn thrives in diverse habitats. It spreads quickly along roadsides, fence lines, woodland edges, pastures and abandoned fields. In other words, pretty much anywhere.
鈥淏uckthorn is a problematic understory plant, when in large numbers they can completely shade out all the native tree seedlings, and eventually strangle out a forest,鈥� Lovat said while emphasizing how infestations of the plant pose serious environmental threats.
The students are analyzing data by placing goats in an isolated area of the Morgan Arboretum, using caution to not further spread the buckthorn seeds when returning the animals back to their home farm.
According to Privorotsky, Pace Farms often gets approached by municipalities and boroughs struggling with invasive species such as poison ivy, phragmites and buckthorn.
Privorotsky hopes her team will be to be able to present promising data to municipalities and burrows, offering alternatives to mechanical mowing and giving them a clear and eco-friendly alternative.
As Lovat puts it: 鈥淕oats are easier to get into isolated sites than a mechanical mower.鈥�
While the research isn鈥檛 over yet, Lovat described her observations as 鈥渉opeful,鈥� and that the goats, 鈥渄evoured the buckthorn,鈥� so, 鈥渋t looks like they could be effective after all.鈥�