For these goats in Minnesota parks, invasive plants are on the menu
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Zane Bakken calls out to a herd of about 65 goats. They start walking toward him, and congregate in a large clump.
Bakken grabs a large branch of buckthorn — a stubborn invasive shrub found across Minnesota — leans it over, and snaps it as goats begin munching on its leaves.
He says it’s a really good indicator of how hungry the herd is getting.
“Every single one would be on this branch if they were looking for food, but it seems everyone’s pretty happy with themselves,” he says.
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This herd is mowing down buckthorn at Casperson Park in Lakeville. But you may have seen — and heard — goats hired by cities or private landowners across the state for years now, to help control invasive species. They’ve even cleared invasives from a hillside next to the Minnesota Capitol.
Bakken is operations manager at ScapeGoats Farms, one of several companies operating in Minnesota that rent out goats to graze fields and forests.
“It’s a more holistic customer base,” Bakken said. “People who are worried about spraying chemicals, and not really knowing where they’re going to go, or the total effects of them — or next to water like we are here, it’s not a great pairing. So, goats are the chemical-free way.”
The “chemical way,” or just digging up buckthorn by the roots, potentially can be cheaper and faster. But Bakken said the goats provide “a natural disturbance. It’s sowing in new seeds when we do some native seed, and it is damaging the root systems and weakening the plants of the invasives.”
As any Minnesota gardener will tell you, buckthorn can be obnoxious to remove. It can tower up to 20 feet tall and have thick branches.
While goats can’t eat entire buckthorn trees, they eat the leaves — which weakens and eventually kills the plants. Goats also digest berries in a way that helps prevent invasive species from spreading.
“In the gut of a goat, the berries come out the other end, and they’re 98 percent unviable, so they don’t get tracked from job to job as they eat berries, which is very important. Because if they dropped seeds like birds did, we would be in trouble, making problems everywhere we went,” Bakken said.
Lakeville is one of the cities that contracts with ScapeGoats. Ann Messerschmidt, an environmental resource specialist for the city, has hired goats to clear buckthorn in Lakeville’s parks for the better part of a decade — including Casperson Park this year.
“I've had goats come in here periodically to do the work, and then sometimes I do switch back to chemicals ‘cause I just don't have enough money,” Messerschmidt said. “But I much prefer this, and so does everybody else, so we’re looking at hopefully adding more areas.”
She says residents love to watch the goats, which are contained within a temporary electric fence.
Messerschmidt says clearing out thickets of buckthorn makes the park more welcoming.
“It definitely draws people into these areas where they would generally stay out,” she said.
There is research on using goats to control invasive species. Sara Nelson is a natural resources specialist at Dakota County Parks. Back in 2018, she was part of a team at the University of Minnesota looking at how effective goats actually are at getting rid of buckthorn.
After three years, they found the goats were making a difference.
“It has these applications to… really open up the space from dense buckthorn,” Nelson said.
Nelson said while the goats didn’t fully eradicate the buckthorn in that study, they did bring other benefits.
“The native plants didn’t seem to be that damaged by the goats. And that kind of makes sense because a lot of our native plants do have really resilient root systems, and a lot of them probably liked the open light, too,” she said.
Compare that to chemical methods, which can leave native plants as collateral damage when applied liberally.
For Bakken, in addition to the reasons he sees goats as a viable option for conservation, he also thinks about the animals’ well being.
“That’s why I’m still here, is to give the animals meaning and to incorporate them into the interests and needs of society, so people can see the amazing things that they can do and connect on that level,” Bakken said.
While goats are not a one-time fix for buckthorn, Bakken says they've taught him lessons about taking on seemingly impossible challenges — in the woods, and in life.
“It might be a big issue, and you see it everywhere, and it’s ... overbearing,” he said, “but you can make a dent as long as you put your head down and try to do the smartest thing and keep learning along the way.”
