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Goats in the City: Targeted Grazing for Low-Impact Management of Sensitive Landscapes

Targeted grazing is the application of a specific kind of livestock at a determined season, duration, and intensity to accomplish defined vegetation or landscape goals. Communities in the U.S. are finding targeted grazing -- usually with goats – to be a useful tool for managing invasive and nuisance vegetation in parks, landfills, trails, and along waterways. Its use extends to private property as well, finding application in pre-development land clearing, maintenance of undeveloped subdivision lots, and anywhere it is prudent to avoid the high-impact approaches of burning, pesticide use, or machinery. In 2013, the City of Lake Park became one of the first communities in Iowa to implement targeted grazing when it hired Goats On The Go, LC to deploy 20 goats on the steep shore of its lakeside park. For three days the goats munched through invasive honeysuckle, locust, multiflora rose, and poison ivy as the first step in reestablishing native cover to better infiltrate runoff and hold the shore’s soil in place, all the while enhancing the park as one of the small community’s biggest assets. Wade Wagoner, AICP, (former City Administrator of Lake Park) will be joined by Aaron Steele, AICP (owner and founder of Goats On The Go, LC) to describe this project which won the 2014 APA Iowa Environmental Planning Award, and present it as a model for other communities to follow. Steele will also address common questions and concerns about targeted grazing as an urban and suburban practice.

Speakers: Wade Waggoner and Aaron Steele