Austinites can adopt goat so herd can continue cleaning up poison ivy along Lady Bird Lake

AUSTIN, Texas – More than a hundred goats have spent nearly three weeks along the Lady Bird Lake shoreline cleaning up poison ivy.

“This is the first time we have brought goats of this magnitude to this space, and they are working quickly, doing great work, and we want to bring them back,” says Hannah Cofer, the COO of The Trail Conservancy.

The herd has cleared five acres of vegetation, including poison ivy and grapevine.

A job that saves funds and feeds the goats is a win-win situation put in place by the nonprofit organization, The Trail Conservancy.

“4.9 million visitors to the trail every year will notice that there are some areas that are a little bit chalked of this noxious species, and some others like that and is just really hard to manually remove those for obvious reasons, and we really didn’t want to bring in any kind of pesticides,” says Cofer.

“We are very outdoorsy, so I know a lot of people are, too. It is good to see different parts of the city being cleaned up,” says Ray Chavez, who walks Butler trail.

In an effort to keep the program going, the nonprofit has given residents the opportunity to adopt a goat for $20 per month or $240 for the year.

“Adopt a goat, sounds like a good time, you get to claim your goat, and go take pictures with them that is pretty cool,” says Chavez.

Goats help tackle poison ivy along Lady Bird Lake

“You get a cute little certificate. All the goats have a name tag on the ear. You get a certificate with your goats name, and you can come visit, you can’t cuddle I wouldn’t recommend that, they are covered in poison ivy because they are doing their job, but you can snap a selfie, check them out, there are a 150 of them out here,” says Cofer.

The goats have been at the trail for nearly three weeks, and are set to leave next week.

The funds from the program will bring them back in the fall.