See goats gobbling weeds along Highway 1? Here’s what the hungry critters are up to
The goats are back, chomping their way along a marine terrace area close to busy Highway 1, north of Piedras Blancas.
The hungry critters are now munching through about 20 acres worth of invasive weeds near San Simeon in a Caltrans landscape management program that kicked off in 2019, according to Kathleen Brown, the agency’s landscape architect.
Instead of relying on herbicides, Caltrans is using this more sustainable, three-year approach to revitalizing the native coastal prairie adjacent to the recent highway realignment project in the area where the highway was previously located.
More than 300 goats arrived Monday aboard three trucks that offloaded them quickly onto their initial grazing area.
Brown said a resident shepherd will confine the goats with temporary electric fencing, move them every few days from section to section, and monitor the herd to keep the browsing creatures safe.
“It’s basically the same scenario as last year’s,” Brown said, “but with more goats, so it will go faster.”
She expects this round of grazing could last from two to three weeks.
In the summer of 2019, the goats grazed at a rate of about one acre a day over a one-month period.
The goats were deployed earlier this year than last, Brown said.
While the initial trial removed fully grown invasive species that were overtaking the area, the current munch-fest targets non-native plants such as bur clover, wild radish, mustard and thistle “before the weeds produce seeds,” Brown explained.
The goats are managed by shepherds from Living Systems Land Management, a Coalinga-based subcontractor hired by the Caltrans prime contractor, Empire Landscaping Inc.
