{"id":90743,"date":"2025-10-22T09:32:11","date_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:32:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/90743\/"},"modified":"2025-10-22T09:32:11","modified_gmt":"2025-10-22T09:32:11","slug":"goats-help-clear-invasive-plants-at-valley-avenue-park","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/90743\/","title":{"rendered":"Goats help clear invasive plants at Valley Avenue Park"},"content":{"rendered":"

ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – A herd of goats and sheep has taken over Valley Avenue Park … not as a new attraction, but as a landscaping crew.<\/p>\n

The animals are part of Blue Ridge Goatscaping<\/a>, a Christiansburg-based business founded by Ezekiel Reed<\/a>. What began five years ago with just a few animals has grown into a 40-member herd that clears brush and overgrowth across Southwest Virginia.<\/p>\n

\"GoatsGoats from Blue Ridge Goatscaping graze at Valley Avenue Park in Roanoke, helping remove invasive plants while preserving the natural landscape.(WDBJ7)<\/p>\n

This week, their focus is on removing invasive English ivy. \u201cIt\u2019s very invasive and chokes out native plants and keeps everything from properly growing and being healthy,\u201d Reed said.<\/p>\n

Using goats and sheep to manage overgrowth offers an environmentally-friendly alternative to heavy machinery or chemical herbicides. The goats eat higher brush while the sheep graze the low growth, working together to clear difficult terrain.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey can access areas that machinery can\u2019t safely access and do it in a very ecologically-friendly way,\u201d Reed explained.<\/p>\n

\"AA goat from Blue Ridge Goatscaping grazes at Valley Avenue Park in Roanoke.(WDBJ7)<\/p>\n

Each animal can clear up to 250 square feet per day. The herd can cover about an acre in four days and their grazing even destroys seeds in the process, helping prevent regrowth.<\/p>\n

Eco-grazing projects like this are becoming increasingly popular in the region as communities look for sustainable land management options.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 WDBJ. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ROANOKE, Va. (WDBJ) – A herd of goats and sheep has taken over Valley Avenue Park … not…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":90744,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[61343,61346,22387,61344,85,46,61345,141,22040,386],"class_list":["post-90743","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-blue-ridge-goatscaping","tag-brush-clear-out","tag-eco-friendly","tag-goats","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-natures-lawnmowers","tag-science","tag-sheep","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90743","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90743"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90743\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90743"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90743"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90743"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}