Harvey School News

Passersby on Route 22 the past two weeks near the entrance to The Harvey School may have had to look twice to make sure they saw what they saw … a herd of goats traversing the school’s 125-acre campus, but the 33 goats are indeed there, making their way to munch on much of the invasive vegetation as part of a special initiative of the Bedford 2030 in partnership with the school.

Harvey contracted with Fat and Sassy Goats of Beacon, New York, to address an invasive vine infestation on school property. As part of this initiative, Harvey is partnering with Bedford 2030 to use this project as a community demonstration to evaluate the effectiveness of goat-grazing in addressing invasive vines and to promote a natural approach to land management. Owned and operated by Jenn Balch and Donald Arrand, Fat and Sassy Goats manages infestations of invasive vines using natural methods as an alternative to chemical herbicides.

Bedford 2030 Executive Director Midge Iorio says her not-for-profit climate action organization is exploring goat-grazing as a way to naturally manage land and that this is one of several ways community members can embrace “Rooted Solutions,” or natural climate solutions, to promote conservation and biodiversity in Bedford.

“We are interested in exploring vegetative management to manage land and address the invasive vines that threaten our trees, native plants and the creatures that inhabit them,” Iorio said. ‘Goats offer a chemical and gas-free way to manage land and serve as a vivid demonstration of a 'Rooted Solution',” she added.

The goats are expected to return to Harvey at least one more time this fall. Iorio said it may take a few treatments of goat-grazing over a couple of seasons to exhaust the plants to have a long-term effect. “We are eager to see the impact the goats can have in this initial grazing and to see long term what their impact will be,” she said, noting that in just two-weeks of goat grazing this summer at Harvey, the results were "quite dramatic.”

Iorio believes the goat-grazing initiative could very well lead to more community involvement in Bedford 2030’s endeavors to improve the ecological quality of life in the town. “We hope this vivid demonstration of a ‘Rooted Solution’ will inspire community members to embrace natural approaches to managing their yards and to managing the land in our community,” Iorio said. She added, “We also hope it brings attention to the threat that invasive plants pose to our local tree canopy, native plants and the creatures that live in them and that it inspires action.

In addition to finding natural climate solutions with projects such as the goat-grazing initiative, Bedford 2030 focuses on ways to tap into existing ecosystems to increase carbon capture and storage, enhance biodiversity, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.