Goats return to Pittsburgh’s Frick Park to clear invasive vegetation

PITTSBURGH — The Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy and Allegheny GoatScape partnered Friday to bring a herd of goats to Frick Park to clear invasive vegetation at Clayton Hill.

The goats arrived Friday morning at the Frick Environmental Center as part of an ongoing ecological restoration project in the park.

The grazing herd will remain at Clayton Hill for approximately three to four weeks, covering roughly two acres of parkland. The goats are targeting dense patches of invasive plant species, including amur honeysuckle, multiflora rose, border privet and porcelainberry.

One acre of the current grazing area sits inside a new deer exclosure, which will serve as a site for environmental education and ecological restoration. High School Urban Ecostewards will plant approximately 100 native trees and shrubs later this fall inside the exclosure, which has the capacity to hold between 500 and 600 native plants as the site develops.

Allegheny GoatScape has partnered with the Pittsburgh Parks Conservancy for nearly a decade to use grazing herds as a chemical-free method for removing nonnative plants.

Previous restoration work at Clayton Hill has cleared approximately 3.4 acres of dense vegetation, established deer protection and added thousands of native trees and shrubs. The addition of the new exclosure brings the total protected restoration area at Clayton Hill to approximately 4.4 acres.

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