Riverside Park Welcomes 25 Goats For 'Goatham City' Project

For the next few weeks, a herd of goats are setting up shop on the Upper West Side as they tackle a nasty patch of poison ivy and invasive plants as part of the Riverside Park Conservancy’s new "Goatham" initiative.

The fenced-in area stretching alongside Riverside Drive from 119th to 125th Street has been overgrown for years thanks to the combination of rash-inducing plants and a slope too steep for lawn mowers. But luckily neither of those pose a problem to the 25 goats who will be clearing the hilly stretch of parkland through the end of August. According to their owner, Rhinebeck resident Larry Cihanek, goats will eat pretty much anything that's green, and they love to climb.

“We have one goat who’s here, Buckles,” Cihanek said. “We put in these five-foot ‘round bales of hay [in their barn], and Buckles is always standing on these bales of hay because he likes mountains.” (Please note Buckles's bio reveals that his celebrity crush is the Mandarin Duck.)

In the last few years, goats have been the go-to solution for places like Prospect Park and Brooklyn Bridge Park that are looking to dispose of stubborn weeds and invasive plants without having to take on the financial and environmental burden of herbicides. Not only do the goats get to spend all day snacking on plants like wineberry, multifloral rose, and lesser celandine (and they need it—goats can eat about a quarter of their body weight every day), but their poop helps fertilize the hills as they make room for new and better plantlife.

Listen to Danny Lewis’s report on WNYC:

“We wanted to bring the goats in (during) the spring and early summer when there was plenty for them to eat, and they have lots of options for their ultimate farm-to-table experience here,” said Riverside Park Conservancy President Dan Garodnick. “Goats have a high level of success in this regard. You can count on them to get the job done.”

Cihanek says visitors hoping to say hi to the goats should NOT try to pet or feed them, since you could wind up with a handful of poison ivy residue and a friendly nip in return. But you can still get to know them all through the bios that the conservancy has posted on its custom “Goatham” website, where you can even vote on which goat you think is the G.O.A.T. They’ll be snacking away in Riverside Park through August 30th (they're roaming around a two-acre area, a fenced enclosure, located between 119th to 125th Streets).

Danny Lewis is an associate producer for WNYC's All Things Considered. You can follow him on Twitter at @dannydoodar.