Goats at the firehouse? Metro West partners with four-legged lawnmowers to remove pests

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - Just to the left of a West Metro Fire station, there’s a herd of moving animals gleefully chomping away at overgrowth alongside a manicured lawn.

Fifty goats, mostly female with some young kids, are pitching in to keep the area beautiful, poison free and protected for a number of local species who depend on this small prairie to survive.

The goats didn’t just wander in – they’re on the job. And they take it seriously. Mowing the grass day and night – in between butting each other in the head and taking long naps in the dirt. But that’s what it is to be an employee of the St. Louis chapter of Goats on the Go.

Their boss is Emma Enright a teacher who runs this herd on her off time.

She’s been working with Goats on the Go , a national company offering service across the county and several counties around St. Charles.

So why goats?

Well, for Assistant Chief John Bradley, it’s as simple as saving money, lowering the amount of weed killers on the property and ing the rare species that through Wildwood. He first thought of using goats on the property after watching a documentary that briefly mentioned using goats as a natural way of maintaining properties without hurting the environment or putting out pollution.

Since the Metro West Fire Protection District had already dedicated about three acres of Station 3 and istration Building to being a natural prairie, it seemed like a win-win. The area is still used by the District to provide training – including cave-in rescues of trenches. They just had a training recently, and the goats were half interested in the giant piles of dirt as they lazily chomped on their weed meals.

It’s part of a tactic called “targeted grazing,” by the company that organizes goat feast work across the nation. Basically, a plan is created by a goat expert to see how much time, what season and how much vegetation needs to be removed. Once that’s figured out – the goats get dropped off, fenced in and get feasting.

That’s just what Emma does with her goats.

She’s a member of Goats on the Go, which is a national company that has been moving herds across the nation since 2012 -- originally in Iowa. And if you’re wondering how the goats can work like this -- you can thank one of the founders who was a community planner who is willing to help communities and potential goat handlers work in areas rural and urban.

“Goat grazing for vegetation control is already widely adopted across the U.S., especially in California, Oregon, and Colorado, where it plays a key role in wildfire prevention,” The MU Extension Office tells First Alert 4. “This practice is part of ‘prescribed grazing,’ recognized by the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) as a sustainable land management tool. Its growing use in both rural and urban areas reflects its effectiveness, affordability, and environmental benefits.”

MU Extension says goats are “natural browsers, not grazers” which means they like eating things like twigs, shrubs and brush – instead of grass – like sheep and cattle. That means they’re perfectly suited to clean out weeds and invasives that can be really expensive for most homeowners or land managers to remove.

MU says their super strong digestive system means that they can break down seeds and plants that others might struggle with, and as a result removes those bad plants from the area where they feast. The more times that goats stop by and have dinner, the better the result is.

The impressive part is that the goats will eat a huge number of invasive and noxious species -- notably poison ivy, honeysuckle, buckthorn, thistle, ragweed, wild parsnips and mulberry.

For Missouri, MU Extension says goats can help mitigate are Bush Honeysuckle and Ragweed. The results to the West Metro Fire land is a healthier habitat, that s endangered species – like the monarch butterfly, which has been losing population in North America.

“Goats also eat grass,” Goats on the Go says, “but if the above plants and other brush and weeds are available grass will make up a relatively small portion of their diets.”

And it’s not just private companies that have been looking at ways goats can help keep things in check. The MU Extension Office has a whole herd of goat specialists who look into how sheep and goats can control parasites by foraging, how grazing multiple animals might improve farm profits and the benefits of goat-centered weed control.

Avery Martinez covers water, ag & the environment for First Alert 4. He is also a Report for America Corps member, as well as a member of the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. His coverage ranges from EPA s to corn farms and hunting concerns, and local water rates to rancher mental health.

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