Goats on Southeast Belmont (photo by Brian Libby)
I first received word of the phenomenon in an excited cell-phone call from my girlfriend a few days ago. "Remember that vacant lot on Belmont where the Monte Carlo burned down? There are a bunch of goats there now, grazing on the weeds. You've got to come see this."
One might have thought the presidential motorcade had just driven by given the excitement in her voice.
When I made my way to the two-acre vacant lot at Southeast 10th and Belmont, there were not only about 50 goats grazing there, just as Valarie said, but there were almost as many people gathered around the perimeter of the chain-link fence encircling the lot.
As Molly Hottle reported in Wednesday's Oregonian, the goats are owned by Georgia Stiner and her company, Goat Rental NW of suburban Damascus. They came to the Belmont lot at the behest of Vancouver realtor Killian Pacific, which is charged with maintaining the vacant lot. Initially Killian planned the usual array of gas-powered, smoke-belching, eardrum-piercing mowers and weed whackers, but the person they hired, Brett Milligan of Free Association Design, came up with this more sustainable alternative. (Milligan also works for landscape design company GreenWorks.) Not only are the goats easier on the environment, ears and nose than industrial equipment, but their digestive systems render the seeds they eat sterile, so there will be fewer weeds here next year. (Of course Milligan had to convince Killian that the goats would not cost any more than mowers. Gotta stay true to that bottom line!)
Stiner told the paper that her goats have been hired all over the metro area, sometimes at sites where loud lawn equipment can't be used and other times just when people are looking for a more sustainable solution.
On Milligan's Free Association Design blog, he also has lots of interesting knowledge to share about the goats themselves. A brief example:
"The goats themselves exhibit an amazing repertoire of behaviors, moods and proclivities (constant entertainment really); some of which seem predictable. For example, heat has a major effect on their appetite. As we saw in the first couple days, in warm weather they slow down and don’t eat nearly as much. As herding animals by instinct, they tend to stick together and form social subgroups within the herd. In a short time its easy to tell which ones are fond of each other and which ones have issues. The patterns of how they collectively move (the repeating cycles of foraging and resting) seems unpredictable and slightly random.
Although common knowledge says that goats will eat anything, they undeniably have specific preferences when it comes to vegetation. They selectively graze rather than mow; covering the terrain many times over in the process of eating it down. The field seems to offer a culinary menu similar to a stocked refrigerator or pantry. There are those things that get eagerly consumed at a fast rate (in this case seasonally procured fresh green clover, grass and blooming flowers), followed by things that are less immediately appetizing – like desiccated seed stalks and thistles. They’re edible, but not delicious.
This menu is affected by weather conditions and seasons. As other contemporary applied research in herding/grazing practices has demonstrated, by simply modifying the timing of grazing to optimum specifics of local conditions, massive regenerative effects can be achieved. A key question for us right now, is when is the best two times of year to bring the goats to this site."
More than the sustainability of the goat-grazing, though, I find it interesting the degree to which people have flocked to see the goats on Belmont.
Goats on Southeast Belmont (photo by Brian Libby)
After all, if you think about it, you can see animals anytime at the Oregon Zoo, and much more exotic ones at that. But I personally never go to the zoo. It seems depressing to keep animals native to Africa, Asia or elsewhere in the world locked up in cages in rainy Portland. Granted zoo officials have endeavored over the decades to make the enclosures more habitat-friendly. But I'll never forget the site on my last zoo visit of an elephant gently but persistently butting its head against the bars of its cage. It's still a prison for them.
In the case of the goats grazing on Belmont or the other bits of nature sprouting into the city like chicken coops, it feels more natural because these are animals already in abundant numbers in the agricultural areas surrounding Portland. It may feel like a bit of a novelty to have goats munching grass with the downtown skyline visible in the background, but not so absurd as having giraffes and lions. And it doesn't feel as contrived or over-nostalgic as an animal presence like the police department's officers riding horseback. The goats may not be completely free to roam, but they're basically being allowed to do what goats do: eat and hang out.
Graphic courtesy David Badders/The Oregonian
These farm animals are slowly but persistently helping to break down traditional barriers between urban and rural locales. The same thing is happening with the green infrastructure being introduced into the city by way of small bits of nature like bioswales and eco roofs. The old notion of the city was as a concrete jungle, devoid of greenery. But it doesn't have to be that way. Slowly, over time, we can introduce more and more of the natural world back into the city, uncovering old creeks and swales initially buried in concrete and inviting birds and mammals back into our zip codes. It's not to suggest that we should all be joining hands and singing "Kum-ba-ya" over a few goats chewing weeds, but clearly people respond to having a little nature around them.
"They've been out here two weeks," Milligan told The Oregonian. "I thought things would kind of die down in terms of public interest, but it hasn't at all." My girlfriend has even started leaving home early in the morning to make sure she gets to visit the goats.
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Having worked a few blocks from the U.N. in NYC for a few years, my feeling is that goats are much more exciting than a presidential motorcade driving by. The latter just means it takes longer to get back to the office from lunch; the former is, well, GOATS!
Posted by: Moore Michael M | October 15, 2010 at 05:57 PM