Goats on the Go are gobbling up invasive species of plants in an Ohio park

Living up to the title of the “greatest of all time,” goats have arrived at Antrim Park in Columbus.

No, these goats aren’t Ohio greats, like LeBron James or Archie Griffin.

These goats are Mr. Waddles, Petunia, Myrtle, Buttercup and more. They are Columbus’ Goats on the Go.

Twenty goats in total, 14 nannies and six billies have taken up residency on the northwest corner of the park to eat invasive species of plants, including poison ivy and honeysuckle.

While these plants are unwanted or poisonous in public spaces, such as Antrim, they are a delicious treat to the goats, who not only eat the current weeds but also minimize their reproduction by destroying the plants’ seeds.

As a part of a partnership between the Columbus Recreation and Parks Department and Goats on the Go Columbus Northwest, the herd arrived at the park on Aug. 9.

The goats were expected to make their way through four paddocks of brush alongside the lake in roughly three weeks, said Tina Mohn, the city department’s conservation administrator.

“They’re eating the things that we want them to remove, so it’s truly a win-win,” Mohn said. “The community also has an opportunity to be exposed to what would predominantly look like and seem like a farm animal in an urban park.”

While this has been a pilot project for the city, Mohn’s team has been looking at future projects to incorporate the goat helpers to grow the program and partnership.

Eat, bleat, repeat

For Columbus Recreation and Parks’ conservation team, the goat grazing initiative is a push to enlist alternative resources and think “outside the box” regarding sustainability, Mohn said.

Tracy Chesney, the owner of Goats on the Go Columbus Northwest, said she estimated the goats had about another week to 10 days of work left at the park as of Aug. 23.

The goats are full-time residents of the park, spending both days and nights onsite.

Both the Recreation and Parks department and Chesney’s team go out daily to check on the herd and the fencing, she said. The goats have settled in nicely, she said, among the food from the brush and a purified water supply from the lake.

Since Chesney and her husband, Jeff, started as a Goats on the Go affiliate in 2023, an unexpected joy of the work has been seeing the excitement within others when interacting with the goats.

“Honestly, that’s one of the things that keeps the wind in our sails,” Chesney said. “We still like watching the goats. It’s fun. And then seeing people react to them: how many places can you go to work where there’s a 99.9% chance that people are just going to have a big smile on their face.”

For visitors to the park who want to see the goats, they may note different colors of tags on the animals. These indicate when each goat was born.

Goats with pink tags were born in April 2022. Those with black tags were born in August 2022, and grey-tagged goats were born around December 2022.

Sophia Veneziano is a Columbus Dispatch reporter supported by the Center for HumanKindness at The Columbus Foundation. She may be reached at sveneziano@dispatch.com. The Dispatch retains full editorial independence for all content.

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Goats gobbling up invasive plant species in Ohio park