Grazing goats provide low-tech solution to Toronto park’s invasive plant problem
Advertisement
Read this article for free:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Digital Subscription
One year of digital access for only $205*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*First annual payment billed as $205.00 + GST for one year. This annual subscription will automatically renew at $233.00 + GST every 52 weeks (10% off the regular annual price of $259.35). Offer available to new and qualified returning subscribers only. Cancel any time.
To continue reading, please subscribe:
Add Free Press access to your Brandon Sun subscription for only an additional
$1 for the first 4 weeks*
- Enjoy unlimited reading on winnipegfreepress.com
- Read the E-Edition, our digital replica newspaper
- Access News Break, our award-winning app
- Play interactive puzzles
*Your next Brandon Sun subscription payment will increase by $1.00 and you will be charged $17.95 plus GST for four weeks. After four weeks, your payment will increase to $24.95 plus GST every four weeks.
Read unlimited articles for free today:
or
Already have an account? Log in here »
Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 11/06/2025 (462 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
TORONTO – Dozens of goats have returned to a Toronto park to munch on invasive and woody plants as part of an eco-friendly city project.
After a successful pilot last summer, a herd of 50 goats is grazing a new section of the Don Valley Brick Works Park meadow over two days this week.
“The goats are good at invasive species management, reduction of woody encroachment, they improve soil quality and are really just an overall benefit to the meadow,” said Cheryl Post, project manager and a natural environment specialist with the city.
Post said she hopes to build off last year’s positive results, with the goats mainly targeting invasive plants while allowing native species to grow.
“Although that will take some years to see how it goes, we’ve been noticing some really obvious and immediate impacts to the invasive species, which is great,” she said.
King City-based company Goats in the City provided the goats that are bred specifically for prescribed grazing projects, and are even trained to interact with visitors.
“What we really do at Goats in the City is to observe goats, know what they prefer, know what they like, and then apply that to the kind of plants that we want to get rid of,” company president Ian Matthews said. “We’re basically just using them for what they instinctively would be doing anyway.”
The goats also drew visitors to the park as it offered educational tours about the animals’ strategic grazing. Among them was Kevork Hacatoglu, who came on Wednesday to learn about eco-friendly ways of maintaining the city.
“It is a way of reducing the impact on the environment,” he said. “It’s a more circular way of maintaining the park and sensitive ecosystems. The more solutions like this, the better.”
Plant regrowth and other results of the project will be monitored over multiple years in partnership with the Toronto Field Naturalists.
If all goes well, city staff say the project will continue in the coming years.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published June 11, 2025.
