This May, You Can Frolic With Goats in Prospect Park

PROSPECT PARK, BROOKLYN — Beginning the third week of May, springtime in Prospect Park will become even more bucolic than it was before.

The Prospect Park Alliance announced Monday that park officials will be bringing in eight goats from Rhinebeck, New York, later this month to snack on invasive plants that have sprung up in the years following Superstorm Sandy.

Around 500 of the park's trees were knocked down during the storm, according to the Alliance — including 50 in the hilly, wooded Vale of Cashmere region, which stretches between East Drive and Flatbush Avenue in the park's northern end.

Since then, invasive weeds have moved into the Vale, according to the Alliance. Park officials want to remove them before restoring the area's proper foliage.

Goats are great climbers, and can cross the steep terrain more easily than people and machines, explained Grace McCreight, a spokeswoman for the Alliance.

Plus, McCreight said, they're big fans of pretty much everything that needs to be removed, including poison ivy.

"Apparently it's one of their favorite foods," McCreight said. "They like it; we don't. It's a good trade-off."

The goats will live in a fenced-off section of the Vale all summer. However, they'll still be visible to the public — and the Alliance is arranging two meet-and-greets so local humans and visiting goats can get to know each other better.

On the evening of May 19, adults can enjoy wine, cheese and an ecologically minded discussion of the goats' work in the park, lead by their keepers, Larry and Ann Cihanek. Participants will get to meet a kid goat as well. (The $25 event, taking place at the Lefferts Historic House, is currently sold out, but McCreight said Alliance members will have access to additional tickets.)

Then, on the afternoon of May 22, the Alliance will host a free family event, again at the Lefferts Historic House. Neighborhood children will be able to make ice cream out of goat's milk, weave yarn from their wool, visit with the goats themselves and participate in a parade to the Prospect Park Zoo, where they can learn how sheep are sheared. Learn more about the event — and register — here.

Photo by Anthony/Flickr