Members of the Creekside Goat Company are hard at work. (Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Goat Mowers

Grazing goats return to Lethbridge’s coulees to eat invasive weeds

Jun 4, 2020 | 5:50 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – For the second straight summer, invasive plant control is going to the goats.

The City of Lethbridge has contracted the Creekside Goat Company to have their 200-animal crew eat their way through leafy spurge.

“Leafy spurge is a very invasive weed, nothing else eats it. We’ve been able to come down and the goats love it, they search it, they look for it, they exclusively eat it, and we’ve been able to really knock back the spurge in the city parks,” says Robert Finck, Owner of Creekside Goat Company.

Finck and his fellow goat herder use two dogs to keep the goats confined to specific areas where the invasive weeds are found.

While the milky liquid from its stems and flowers are irritants to most livestock, the powerful digestive system of the goat means it is quite a tasty snack.

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Jackie Cardinal, Parks and Natural Resources Coordinator with the City of Lethbridge, says the goats are an environmentally-friendly alternative to chemical treatments.

“We’re really close to the river and we’re on the floodplain so we don’t like to use chemicals in our nature reserve parks or on our floodplains in general unless we really really have to.”

The animals are more effective and efficient than conventional week control, as it can take several weeks for someone to come down with a backpack and treat the area manually.

“There’s definitely less spurge this year than there was last year, so you’re seeing the results of it,” says Finck.

The goats also leave virtually no trace, other than their droppings, that they were in the area.

While Finck adds that, while he has no problem with people taking photos of the groups, he says “we’re not a petting zoo” and asks that trail users allow the goats to work in peace.

Currently, the group of goats are working in the Alexander Wilderness Park and are set to move to Indian Battle Park in the next couple of weeks.

If the program continues to be successful, the city might ask Creekside to go to other city parks in the future.

The goats are expected to eat the leafy spurge until sometime in August.