Sometimes it seemed like the goats brought to Riverside Park this summer mostly spent their time napping. Maybe that’s because the Riverside Parks Conservancy gave them names like Cheech and Chong that implied they were zonked-out potheads.
But photos released on Thursday by the conservancy show that the animals devoured just about everything on a weed-stricken hill between 119th and 125th Street.
The goats ate up about three acres of vegetation, “clearing the way for more ecologically ideal plants and a healthier forest!” the conservancy tweeted.
And now the chronic neglect of Riverside Park is revealed. Note the dry and compacted soil and the fallen trees left to rot. “Ecologically ideal plants and a healthier forest” require nurturing and maintenance including healthy soil and adequate light and air to spur growth. At their next visit, if any, perhaps the goats might wish to feast on the weeds that defile the “forest” between West 95th Street and West 84th Street. Wondering if RSP receives it’s fair share of the NYC Department of Parks budget?
My Masters degree is in Environmental Science. I live in Hell’s Kitchen,own a home with a wooded area in the New Paltz area. Rotted leaves and trees are an important part of the natural order aka recycling of things in nature. Wooded areas by definition with the presence of the “canopy” have reduced light.
You’re a clueless old man. Go roll up your sleeves and do something, and may I suggest you start with educating yourself about the things that obviously make you so miserable. Better yet, maybe time to move to more manicured suburb?
The other thing to keep in mind is these areas of the park are WOODS which are kept in a natural state. Rotting logs and certain soil conditions are normal in the woods which clearly differ from manicured and maintained areas of the park. Aside from letting a goat or two loose now and again these natural areas should be left alone to flourish as nature intends. It’s also much more cost effective.
Surely your time could be used more wisely than berating hard working, and likely under-paid, workers at Riverside Park Conservancy. It’s always been my experience that the wonderful Gardeners there are friendly and diligent in their areas- doing the very best they can with limited resources. They are funded only partly by the Parks Dept and mostly by the dollars of the local community and neighbors- so if you are unhappy with the way Riverside Park looks, you can actually do something about it! Contact them and put your money where your typing fingers are- they will happily put your money into restoring the Park- it’s what they do every day!
Yes and he could also volunteer to help the Conservancy restore the area.
Wow! That’s a hill of an improvement!
I hope this becomes the goat-to solution for this kind of problem.
Wow. This has goat to be the baaaa-st post i’ve read in a while. Go Goats!
So just to make sure we’re saying the bottom photo is preferred?
While the top photo looks more lush, it was actually full of weeds including poison ivy. Now that it’s been cleared, more appealing plants have room to grow.
Now time to bring in some pigs and get that soil turned!
those crazy kids.
Amazeballs! 3 acres of full of nasty weeds is most impressive! Hope Cheech & Chong et al. enjoyed their all-you-can-eat weed buffet. Y’all come again soon!
Wow! GoGoGoats!
The Before picture is lovely.
So what is the next step? I get that the area had poison ivy, but between the two I prefer the leafy top photo! What will grow now???
The Conservancy plants non-invasive native plants in the areas where poison ivy and non-native invasive species were growing. You can volunteer to help plant through the Conservancy or through New York Cares.
I hope they’ll be back every summer. It was win-win for people, the park, and the goats. And the incentive to walk a couple of miles to see them regularly was much needed exercise!