In addition to animatronic dinosaurs and lifelike sculptures on display at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden, visitors are now greeted by a new crew of temporary staff members: a herd of goats and sheep tasked with gobbling up grass through April 15.
The herd of about 60 animals arrived Friday morning to begin clearing out invasive and indigenous species around the garden’s Native Texas Boardwalk. The 3-acre zone is home to invasive plant species like privet and photinia as well as aggressive native plant species such as greenbriar and cherry laurel.
Overgrowth of those species can negatively impact mature trees and outcompete other native plants. Due to the high cost and manpower required to control unwanted plants, parks officials in Fort Worth, Arlington and other Texas cities have increasingly turned to “goatscaping” techniques as a management strategy, said garden horticulturist Sebastian Alarcon.
“Clearing out even just a 10th of this area could take 100 man hours, and that’s with chainsaws and bringing in a tractor and weed eaters,” Alarcon said.
Historically, buffalo and deer herds helped mold native forests by eating up brush, Alarcon said. Goat herds can help re-create some of those positive effects by decreasing wildfire risks, increasing the biodiversity of species and enriching soil with their waste.
“The grazing is going to even the playing field,” Alarcon said. “When they eat all of that vegetation, it also exposes a seed bank that’s on the ground. It gets light to the ground so that the seeds and everything that’s been dropping can finally start turning.”
The pilot project, funded by a North Texas Community Foundation grant, will allow Alarcon, his colleague Karen Shuback and their team to explore if goat grazing is a viable option for long-term management of unwanted species in other areas of the garden. While a goat herd famously escaped Arlington’s Crystal Canyon Natural Area in February, Alarcon doesn’t expect that to be a problem on the garden’s 120-acre property.
There’s already interest in trying grazing out in other wildscape areas or a natural prairie behind the Botanical Research Institute of Texas building. Goats likely would not be part of the grazing equation in the prairie, Alarcon said, since sheep and cattle prefer prairie vegetation more.
“Depending on how this goes, I think that’s going to inform where, how often or how we use grazing in the future,” Alarcon said.
Disclosure: The North Texas Community Foundation is a financial supporter of the Fort Worth Report. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
Haley Samsel is the environmental reporter for the Fort Worth Report. You can reach them at haley.samsel@fortworthreport.org.
At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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