{"id":37,"date":"2017-02-28T19:30:11","date_gmt":"2017-02-28T19:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/?p=37"},"modified":"2019-12-27T19:35:08","modified_gmt":"2019-12-27T19:35:08","slug":"goats-are-eating-up-the-invasive-ivy-at-pony-pasture","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/?p=37","title":{"rendered":"Goats Are Eating Up the Invasive Ivy at Pony Pasture"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Originally posted in Style Weekly<\/a> by Jackie Kruszewski<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not the worst gig a goat can get.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three goats at Pony Pasture are taking a break in the shade Saturday while they wait for their first course of winter creeper to settle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eating such invasive plants helps demonstrate their prowess at getting rid of pesky growth. At the river park, they chomp away at the aggressive ivy that has crept up the trees and would suffocate everything in sight if given the chance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think of the goats as a SEAL team,\u201d says Kristi Orcutt, owner of RVA Goats. \u201cI send them in to get the poison ivy, the briars — they\u2019re not fazed by it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Human volunteers can sweep in afterward to get the rest, Orcutt says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The goats are three of 27 available to rent from Orcutt to tackle invasive species or to help with old-fashioned mowing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust the sheer effort to remove all of these invasive plants is almost overwhelming,\u201d says Kitty Hardt, a master naturalist and Richmond tree steward. Her group has been working for several months now and cleared only two areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardt hopes the goats will help ease the burden and bring attention to the struggles between native plants and invasive ones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis area here is like an ivy desert,\u201d she says. \u201cOver time it kills everything. Even the smaller trees won\u2019t survive, and it doesn\u2019t allow any new trees to grow.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hardt surmises someone planted winter creeper in a yard up the hill. It climbed a tree and grew berries, which birds ate and spread downhill. Ivy also hastens the death of host trees, she says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo not plant ivy,\u201d she warns. \u201cIf you do plant ivy, never let it grow up a tree.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not that the goats mind the winter creeper buffet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Orcutt says this is the goats\u2019 first time eating this particular ivy. \u201cI took it home to get their palates used to it a few days in advance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that, goat peer pressure takes over and it\u2019s a race to eat all the ivy they can, Orcutt says. Digestion breaks excluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Originally posted in Style Weekly by Jackie Kruszewski Not the worst gig a goat can get. Three goats at Pony Pasture are taking a break in the shade Saturday while they wait for their first course of winter creeper to settle. Eating such invasive plants helps demonstrate their prowess at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":39,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-goats"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37\/revisions\/40"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/39"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rvagoatsandhoney.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}