“Goatham” City: Riverside Park’s Favorite Rangers Are Back This Summer
A herd of seven goats are employed for the fifth summer in a row controlling invasive species throughout Riverside Park. This year, they’re taking their giant appetites to a new job site at West 143rd St. A welcoming concert is planned for July 10.
| 26 Jun 2024 | 12:25
The herd of goats preparing to start their summer of work in Riverside Park. (
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Two goats lounge around, taking a break from their hard work munching invasive species in Riverside Park. (
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If you see a goat running around north Riverside Park this summer, don’t immediately call the nearest petting zoo. Seven goats have been employed by the park for the fifth summer in a row to clear invasive species like poison ivy, English ivy, mugwort, and more.
As part of the Woodland Restoration Initiative, Riverside Park Conservancy has spent the last fifteen years trying to control invasive species in the park that dominate degraded woodland and harm the local ecosystem. But their efforts have been futile. That is, until, 2019, when they employed goats to clear the slopes at 120th Street and saw tremendous success.
Goats can consume 25 percent of their body weight in vegetation in just one day, and have no problem eating invasive plants like poison ivy. They can reach places that human beings cannot, and their feces add nutrients to the soil they graze upon. With the herd of goats in charge of weeding, human park employees can focus their efforts on installing new trees and plants and increasing the quality of the park’s foliage.
This year, the goats are going further uptown, focusing their efforts on the northern part of Riverside Park at West 143rd St. The Conservancy’s North Park Initiative aims to bring more resources, programming, and maintenance to the uptown sections of the park. This area has traditionally been neglected, and the park hopes to change that by creating public programming at the 145th St. shoreline, adding outdoor exercising equipment at 151st St., and, of course, beautifying nature with help from the goats.
A welcoming ceremony will take place on July 12 at the lawn north of Ten Mile River Playground at 151st St from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
Attendance is free, and there will be local vendors, live music, and refreshments during what the Conservancy calls “a Goatham festival and ribbon-chewing.” Fan favorite goat Mallomar, who was voted the G.O.A.T (Greatest Of All Time) by the public last summer, will be in attendance along with the six other goats.
Look out for four-legged, friendly faces chewing the pestiest plants in Riverside Park this summer.