The Riverside Park Goats Are Returning: What to Know

By Gus Saltonstall

Guess who’s almost baaaaack? The Riverside Park goats.

The Riverside Park Conservancy announced last week that five goats will return to the park this summer to help clear invasive plants from the green space.

It will be the sixth year that goats are deployed in Riverside Park, and after four years in a section of the park near West 120th Street in Morningside Heights, the goats will be stationed for the second year in a row at 143rd Street.

However, before the animals make it to their summer homes, there will be a welcoming events for the goats in July that includes the “first-ever professional eating competition between goats.”

“The Great Goat Graze-Off” will take place on July 12 at 11 a.m. on the lawn north of Ten Mile Playground at West 151st Street and the West Side Highway. The festivities will include an eating contest between the five goats, overseen by George Shea who hosts the Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest in Coney Island. There will also be music from Nice Brass, a New Orleans-style brass band.

You can RSVP to the free event — HERE.

The goats this year are Romeo, Mallomar, Butterball, Kash, and Rufus.

Here’s the Conversancy’s explanation for why the goats are so valuable in the park.

“Riverside Park’s goats are like a herd of full-time professional weeding staff. They are able to traverse difficult, hard-to-reach places, and can also gulp down poison ivy without a second thought. This frees up human hands — and significant portions of time — to work on other components of restoration.”

This is what the section near 143rd Street in Riverside Park looked like before the goat’s arrival last summer, full of poison ivy, weeds, and invasive species.