Goats will take over popular park for a short time only in Toronto

A city in need of help is about to get it in the form of a herd of hungry goats.

Recently, the City of Toronto announced that, following the success of its 2024 pilot project, it will once again unleash a specialized “eco-herd” of goats at Don Valley Brick Works Park to chow down on woody and invasive plant species. 

The herd will take to the 40-acre park (which is also home to the well-known Evergreen Brick Works community hub) in the city’s east end on June 10 and 11. While other municipalities are also leaning on goats to help keep their green spaces healthy, Toronto says it was the first municipality in Ontario to introduce comprehensive goat grazing for ecosystem management. 

On its website, the city said that urban meadows, such as the one at Don Valley Brick Works Park, “contribute to the important habitat diversity and urban ecology of Toronto.” Prescribed grazing, a relatively new phenomenon in Ontario, has shown benefits since its introduction. It involves the use of livestock to address several issues, including the growth of invasive, non-native, or non-compatible plant species and woody vegetation encroachment. The city also said it’s been linked with soil improvement.

Some invasive species that grazing can help control include common buckthorn, autumn olive, garlic mustard, oriental bittersweet, thistle, wild parsnip, vetch, phragmites, poison ivy, honeysuckle and multiflora rose. 

Prescribed grazing is one tool used to manage urban meadows and prairies, with the city still employing a combination of herbicide application, mowing, and burning to maintain the ecosystem. Grazing, the city said, is another method that reduces carbon emissions, noise pollution and reliance on mechanical equipment, allows native species to re-grow and helps reduce dependency on herbicides over time. 

While the practice is relatively new to the city and province, animal maintenance is far from novel. The city said that even millions of years ago, the ecosystem was naturally maintained by natural grazers such as mastodons and mammoths. As time has worn on, grazing creatures such as horses, rhinos, camels, antelope, deer and bison have been doing their part to maintain balance in the fields and meadows they call home. 

“These large historical herds exerted pressure on the landscape and influenced the species that grew, along with the soil ecology,” the city said on its website. 

“They brought nutrients to the soil through their wastes, reduced woody growth, and enhanced seed germination as their hooves disturbed the surface.” 

“In modern times, land managers and researchers look to explore the use of grazing herds of domesticated livestock, such as goats, to mimic the actions of those ancient herds, preserving the health and diversity of meadow habitats.” 

While the goats will be busy eating plants that don’t belong, visitors can stand back and enjoy the show between 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. on both days. 

City staff will be on hand to answer any questions and public talks about the project will take place at noon, 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. 

According to the city, the goats come from Goats in the City Inc., an Ontario company that uses goats specifically for prescribed grazing. The goats are not used or sold for food.