Goats Keeping Cynwyd Heritage Trail Weed Free

BALA WYNYD, PA – If you are planning to head to the Cynwyd Heritage Trail sometime soon, you have a good chance to meet one of the six goats that have been deployed to aid West Laurel Hill's sustainability efforts.

The goats are out along the trail now through September to help control invasive species, weeds, thorns and poison ivy by climbing up the hillside behind the cemetery’s green burial site, Nature's Sanctuary, according to Friends of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.

About 50 to 75 percent of costs incurred by traditional efforts such as mowing, weed whacking, herbicides are saved by employing the goats.

“To maintain Nature’s Sanctuary, we would need to use weed whackers, which harm the ozone with greenhouse gas emissions as well as use more men to manually cut the weeds on a dangerous hillside – which increases costs and can become a liability issue,” Stephen Pastore, West Laurel Hill Operations Manager, said. “With the help of the goats, we can solve both of those issues and lessen our use of herbicides to ensure a more positive impact on our environment and green burial site.”

This is officially the cemetery’s new model to handle invasive species throughout the grounds and the process will be repeated in the same area next year, according to Friends of the Cynwyd Heritage Trail.

The goats are from Green Goats in Rhineback, New York, the group said.

Image via Sam Greenhalgh, Flickr Commons