Roeland Park is the latest Johnson County city to get its goats.
The city council on Monday voted unanimously to approve a contract with Goats on the Go JoCo, a local affiliate that is part of a national network of farms aimed at removing invasive species.
Goats on the Go have been deployed in other local parks, including in Lenexa, Overland Park and Shawnee. In Roeland Park, the goats will focus on nibbling away invasive plants in Nall Park off 49th Street and Nall Avenue.
Goats on the Go JoCo is expected to bring a herd of nearly 40 goats to the park on Monday.
This is a natural alternative to invasive species removal
- Roeland Park wants to remove honeysuckle, Virginia creeper, greenbriar, poison ivy and other invasive species from the park.
- Katherine Kelly, Goats on the Go JoCo owner, told the city council that the goats will eat away at species like honeysuckle and tree of heaven.
- Their goal will be to clear the designated areas of invasive species, but the first season of grazing will be considered “proof of concept” to see how the goats do at Nall Park, she said.
The goats are expected to take 35 days at Nall Park
- A herd of 37 goats will graze the natural, un-mowed parts of four different areas of Nall Park, totaling about six acres.
- Kelly told the city council that it takes the goats five to seven days to graze one acre.
- The goats will remain in Nall Park the entire 35 days, give or take, inside of electric fencing that is charged by a solar-powered battery, Kelly told the Post.
- Kelly added that the goats may cause short-term disruptions to residents wanting to use the walking trails at Nall Park during the next month.
People should not pet or feed the goats
- Kelly emphasized that these are “working goats” and that park patrons should respect the physical boundaries put up by the fence.
- “The goats are just fun to watch,” Kelly said. “They have personalities, you’ll see them interacting with each other. There’s something very calming and happy-making watching goats.”
- Roeland Park Police are also set to do extra after-hours patrols past the park to monitor the goats, since the park is somewhat isolated on a dead end of Nall Avenue in the northern reaches of the city.
The goats could return for regular yearly grazing
- Over time, with regular grazing, the invasive plants at the park are expected to dwindle, according to city documents.
- The cost for this first-time grazing is a little more than $7,500 — about five times less than the quote the city received from Habitat Architects to remove the invasive species.
- If the city continues to use goats to graze at Nall Park, then the cost of the goats will go down each time as the invasive species population shrinks and there will be less for the goats to chew up, according to city documents.
What other JoCo cities have the goats worked with?
- The city of Lenexa first deployed the goats in 2021 to tackle invasive species along the streamway at Sar-Ko-Par Trails Park.
- Earlier this year, a herd of 45 goats grazed at least six acres of the Overland Park Arboretum.
- Goats on the Go’s website says they’ve also worked with the cities of Shawnee and Olathe.
