Mark Twain National Forest Turns To Goats To Manage Invasive Plants [View all]

[Sherman A1]

Removing nonnative plants from the glades and fields in a vast forest can be expensive and harmful to the environment.

That’s why Mark Twain National Forest is deploying a herd of goats to eat their way out of the problem.

Plants like blackberries and kudzu can turn a field from a grassy habitat for turkeys and quail into an overgrown thicket.

“They create a large canopy. They compete for nutrients. And then they push out and eliminate a lot of the desirable native species that we have,” said Brian Davidson, Botany and Invasive Species program manager at the Mark Twain forest.

https://news.stlpublicradio.org/health-science-environment/2020-08-12/mark-twain-national-forest-turns-to-goats-to-manage-invasive-plants