Niagara Parks, OPG among agencies to partner with local farmer
By Luke Edwards
A Niagara farmer has found a creative way to put his animals to good use.
Earlier this summer those passing Gonder’s Flats in Fort Erie along the Niagara River may have noticed a unique visitor on the property. Niagara Falls farmer Dave Harris provided his 40 male goats to Niagara Parks to help clear out the phragmites that had spread to the naturally sensitive area.
“We never thought that they’d have such a voracious appetite for these weeds, but they do. They go in there, stand on them, and chomp them to death,” said Harris.
He and his wife Kathy Warner farm 161 acres in Niagara Falls, on the farm where Harris grew up. He’s been farming for 40 years, and at times they’ve had all kinds of animals, but eventually settled on goats, cattle and sheep. Warner also runs a dog training centre where she teaches obedience and also works with owners of herding dogs, for those who use them to herd or just want to better understand the breed.
“People with herding breeds come here on a weekly basis and take lessons from her, not necessarily because they own livestock but they have a dog…that has herding instinct,” Harris said.
Using his herd to tackle weed problems came up a couple years ago thanks to a client of Warner who works at Ontario Power Generation. The agency had a couple sites - the reservoir by Stanley Avenue and also at the Decew Falls power station site - where inclines and other barriers made mechanical or chemical weed control a challenge.
“The incline on that area is at least 45 degrees so it’s not really advantageous to spray or use mechanical weed removal,” Harris said of the Decew site.
“The goats climb up the hill and do the job.”
This year, staff at Niagara Parks learned of the partnership between Harris and OPG and reached out about having his goats clean up the phragmites at Gonder’s Flats.
Victoria Kalenuik, environmental planning technician with the Niagara Parks, said the project turned out better than expected and shows the potential of how Niagara Parks can collaborate with other individuals, including farmers, to tackle issues like invasive species.
“It worked out really well,” she said. “There were three different spots we let them graze away at.”
With several sensitive spots along the Niagara River Kalenuik said they have to get creative with how they deal with invasive species like phragmites.
“Dave was great,” she said.
Phragmites is a significant problem in Ontario, having spread to roughly 30 per cent in Ontario.
“It’s a big problem to tackle,” Kalenuik acknowledged.
Fortunately the goats worked well. Not only did they munch down on the invasive species but their hooves helped aerate the land and as they did their business they fertilized the area too. The digestive systems of the goats provide an added bonus.
“Goats eat the seed head and in that process the goats kill the germination part of the seed,” Harris said.
There were some challenges they faced at Gonder’s Flats. Each day they’d arrive and put up a fence to control where the goats could go. They could fence them in on three sides, but had to rely on the Niagara River to complete the enclosure.
“We were relying on the fact the goats wouldn’t jump in the river,” Harris said.
Fortunately they behaved.
“They grazed right to the edge and never challenged the river, so that was a good thing.”
And once word got out that there were goats in the area, visitors flocked. Harris said they’d always have someone on hand to keep an eye on the goats, and they had to let the visitors know that these weren’t the petting types.
The couple used to bring petting goats to the Welland Fair, and Harris said he believes it’s important to show city people aspects of farm life, but in this case it was a look but don’t touch situation, since the goats were two-year-old males and had a job to do.
Getting the goats back in the trailer at the end of the day posed a potential challenge, as well, but that’s where Warner’s skills came in handy as they’d bring their border collie out and round up the herd.
Harris said he’s also done some work for the Town of Niagara-on-the-Lake as they tested out goat grazing options. He’s open to other opportunities as well, though it depends on timing.
“It’s interesting work, it gets us off the farm,” he said.
“It’s a different way of making money with your animals.”
It’s also a more environmentally friendly way to deal with weeds and invasive species.
Niagara Parks is planning to bring the goats back in the fall. They’ve also applied for a grant to continue funding the project beyond.
Kalenuik said they’re always looking for ways to partner with local farmers beyond the goat mowers, or otherwise use agricultural techniques to support environmental stewardship. She said they talked at one point about getting chickens to help deal with increased tick populations, as well as bringing in bee hives to help with pollination.
Comments