Goats make a meal (or two) out of ivy

Herd takes care of invasive weeds for hospital groundskeepers

By Christina Lent

The Beaverton Valley Times, Nov 1, 2007, Updated Oct 30, 2009 (2 Reader comments)

Jonathan House / Times Newspapers

A small herd of goats run to greet visitors to their new chomping grounds in the woods behind a parking structure at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center.

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“Big Mama” and her pals have turned the woods behind Providence St. Vincent Medical Center into chomping grounds.

“Big Mama” is part of an industrious herd of nine goats that spent the past three weeks munching on pesky English ivy and holly that have invaded the forested area and threatened the survival of native trees and plants.

“The ivy would kill all of these trees and ground cover plants if left unchecked,” said Craig Martin, St. Vincent groundskeeper. “The ivy climbs up, spreads out and smothers the trees and plants. The sheer weight of the ivy can topple trees.”

Looking out into the fenced 1¼-acre space that the goats have transformed into grazing grounds, there is already marked improvement.

“Several spots were knee-deep in ivy,” noted Mike Wilson, grounds supervisor for the neighboring Catlin Gabel School, which loaned the goats to the hospital. “In the short time they have been here, the goats have removed the ivy down to inches.

“The sheer amount of biomass they eat, the less you have to manually clear.”

The loan of the goats has been a blessing to the three-person grounds crew at St. Vincent who for years has worried about the fate of the 10-acre wooded area bordering the 39.1-acre medical center campus.

“We as a crew wanted to do something to save these woods,” Martin said. “We’re plants people, and we realize that these little slivers of natural areas are important.

“We knew that if they were going to remain, we needed to do something. These goats give us a ton of hope. With them, we are able to get the process started to clear and maintain this area.”

Martin never imagined that a solution for tackling the daunting challenge of maintaining the woods would come in the form of Big Mama and her furry, four-legged friends.

After spotting the goats at work on the adjoining school property, Martin contacted Wilson to see “if they could continue their fabulous process on our property.”

For the past 2½ years Catlin Gabel has used the Nubian eating machines to clear invasive species on its 54-acre campus.

In that time, Wilson has kept tabs on the goats’ feeding behavior and productivity.

“Nine goats on average cleared an acre a year,” he said. “Their average eating rate is 43,560 square feet a year.”

So how do the goats know which plants are non-native and invasive species?

It’s hard to tell, Wilson said.

“We do know that they prefer certain plants over others,” he added.

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