The University of Mary Washington may have an eagle as its mascot, but a very different animal has been making its mark on the Fredericksburg campus. Last year, the school began enlisting goats to help maintain parts of its property.
Holly Chichester-Morby, UMW’s director of landscape and grounds, says the school has a significant amount of wooded acreage. Over the years, she says, one edge of the campus became overgrown with several invasive and unwanted plant species. English ivy, for example, was once planted on the grounds to give the campus a collegiate look, “but it was definitely living up to its invasive nature,” Chichester-Morby says.
One natural solution to the problem: goats.
“The goats eat [English ivy] like candy. They can rear up on their back legs along a trunk and get up to 4 feet of the vines that creep up a tree,” Chichester-Morby says. “Then we can come behind them and cut a band of the remaining vines around the tree, ultimately killing the remaining ivy above it. It’s true teamwork!”
And the goats are helping in more ways than one. “They help us with limbing up evergreens, like hollies, for better ground clearance. This allows for better airflow and visibility, which also is a safety bonus. Plus, their droppings are free fertilizer. All of it helps rejuvenate the forest floor, providing nutrients to mature trees and offering a good start for new tree growth,” she says.
Chichester-Morby says she’s been trying to get a program like this one going at UMW for several years. “I have a friend who has a goat landscaping business in the foothills of the Blue Ridge, so I’ve known about using goats to clear land for decades,” she says.
When Carly Brown, co-owner of the Good Steward Farm in Stafford, approached her about using the farm’s goats, “I absolutely jumped at the chance,” Chichester-Morby says.
During the project, eight to 12 goats graze the campus. In addition to their landscaping help, the herd is a hit with faculty, staff, and neighbors. “The students adore them,” Chichester-Morby says. “For the first two weeks, they had visitors every day, all day.”
Feature image courtesy Holly Chichester-Morby
This story originally ran in our May Issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
