[Base photo via news.discovery.com]
In the latest instance of goats helping Atlantans with unwanted overgrowth, a contingent of bleating billies will be munching on grass at Lower Duck Pond Park at Lindbergh this week. The goats, rented from a group appropriately called Get Your Goat, have been hard at work clearing swaths of the Beltline and PATH400. This time, the Peachtree Heights East Neighborhood Association has called upon goats to clear underbrush that has grown along the creek bed. People are encouraged to come watch these adorable means of foliage management do their work — though be forewarned, there is an electric fence to keep the goats from going AWOL.
At the moment, the goats are slated to munch Monday and Tuesday at Lower Duck Pond Park off of Lindbergh Drive. Depending on how hungry they are, they might be around Wednesday as well.
While goats might be cutesy or terrifying, depending on your experiences with petting zoos, their appetites could be a serious aid to Atlanta's kudzu problem. The invasive, fast-growing plant can grow as much as a foot each day, smothering trees and taking over everything in its path. The goats can chew through a remarkable number of unwanted plants in a hurry. It only took the crew of 27 goats who worked on a half-mile stretch near PATH400 about a month to clean the area up.
— Michael Kahn
· The goats are coming to Peachtree Heights East on Monday to gnaw park weeds [BuckheadView]
· Goats Love Kudzu. Atlanta Loves Goats. Coincidence? Nope. [Curbed Atlanta]