This is welcome. The real problem is that herding goats does
not pay because you need a shepherd.
This has to be better thought out, because there is ample forage in
inconvenient locations that beg close cropping by our voracious goat.
The best way, and I think that this will
apply to all animals before we are finished is to invent a collar to be applied
to either all or some of the animals that makes an annoying pulse whenever the
animal has strayed outside a perimeter.
All animals are nicely trainable to that extent at least and the
perimeter can be set with simple beacons set at corners. Even better, this gets rid of fencing.
Cattle immediately come to mind and their
expensive fencing arrangements. Such a
device could easily be installed on or in the horn.
Goats have always been the obvious
solution to robust weed management. It
is just that goat control is awfully difficult as in naturally expensive. Our technology is certainly up to solving
this problem. It does not have to be too
aggressive either because most of our animals are able to learn avoid
annoyance. After all we use electric
fences for the same reason.
Goats to help tend historic grave sites in
the nation’s capital
-
The Washington Times
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Forget the dog days of August. It’s goat days of
Washington.
In the very near future, the historic,
207-year-old Congressional Cemetery in
the nation’s capital will be neatened up by a herd of hoofed helpers
.
The non-profit Association for the Preservation
of Historic Congressional Cemetery has
partnered with a gaggle of 100 grazing goats, who will trim the exterior
perimeters of the site from Aug. 7-12 as an “innovative green project.”
Indeed. The goats will graze 24 hours a day for
six days, scarfing up vines, poison ivy, ground cover and random debris, “all
the while fertilizing the ground,” organizers say.
“The revolutionary use of eco-goats eliminates
the need for harmful herbicides and prevents the invasive and often foreign
species from killing large mature trees in the cemetery’s wooded area, which
can fall onto the grounds as a result and damage invaluable historic
headstones,” the association says.
“This is also the first time we have found a
suitable partner for a project inside the Beltway,” says Brian Knox, owner and
supervising forester of Maryland-based Eco-Goats, home of the herd in question.
There are 65,000 people buried in the privately
owned, 35-acre cemetery some 20 blocks from the U.S. Capitol. In all, the
silent population includes 16 senators, 68 members of the House, and Vice
Presidents Elbridge Gerry and George Clinton, according to the National Park
Service.
Among the other famous buried there are FBI
chief J. Edgar Hoover, the “March King” John Philip Sousa, Civil War
photographer Matthew Brady ,and Push-ma-ta-ha, chief of the Choctaw Indian tribe.
No comments:
Post a Comment