WASHINGTON — A herd of 40 goats is hard at work gobbling a nearly impenetrable thicket of invasive vines and weeds at the Rock Creek Park Golf Course in an experiment to see if the animals can be a natural alternative to herbicides and heavy machinery as a controversial $35 million course renovation project is about to begin.
"It reduces a lot of stress on the land," said Summer Orcutt, who is managing the herd with the help of two Great Pyrenees herding dogs named Katie and Buddy.
In six days of grazing, the goats have reduced an overgrown acre next to the course's 10th hole to near bare ground, where more restoration work can then be more easily accomplished according to Andrew Szunyog, the Director of Sustainability for the National Links Trust.
The NLT is the nonprofit corporation selected by the National Park Service to restore and operate three of Washington's historic municipal golf courses on park land.
"Water pesticides and herbicides are all resources that cost money and its in our best interest to use the least amount of those resources," Szunyog said.
The goats are doing work that is normally taken care off by herbicide applications and clearing with carbon-spewing heavy machinery, Szunyog added.
The goats leave behind manure that is a natural fertilizer and soil conditioner, Orcutt said.
Curious players are sometimes surprised to see the goats grazing behind a electrified containment fence near the 10th fairway.
"The only thing better than those goats is some more goats," exclaimed "Cowboy" Harris, the course's starter, and a daily player at the Rock Creek Park Course.
The experiment with the goats comes as the National Capital Planning Commission has approved a controversial plan for restoration at the course.
The plan calls for cutting down at least 1,000 trees so that fairways and greens can be restored and a reforestation plan can be implemented to replace the lost green canopy in the coming decades.
The Sierra Club is among the groups opposing the project.
The National Links Trust says its restoration project will bring affordable golf to more people in the District of Columbia while ultimately increasing the acreage of natural habitat, including a pollinator meadow, on the golf course site.
Residents are invited to come see the goats at work as long as they stay out of the fenced area and do not interact with the animals, Szunyog said. Visitors should check in the the course's pro shop before venturing onto the course he said.