Goats, sheep wage war on an invasive vine along a Brunswick trail

BRUNSWICK, Md. (AP) — On the River's Edge Trails in Brunswick, behind Brunswick Middle School, an invasive vine called kudzu blankets and drapes the trails and trees.

"It looks like Jurassic Park," Abby Ingram, Brunswick's GIS and environmental programs manager, said. Brown vines cover everything in sight, and dangle off tall trees.

The kudzu is entwined with vegetation on the trails.

Brunswick has hired a cadre of roughly 20 goats and sheep to eat the kudzu from River's Edge Trails, as well as other invasive species.

Sheep and goats work together to eat kudzu, poison ivy garlic mustard and more on an acre of land.

Goats are browsers and attack vegetation that's higher up. Sheep are grazers and take care of vegetation on the ground.

They will be there for about two weeks, eating one patch at a time.

"It's a unique way to take care of the problem," Carlo Alfano, Brunswick's trail liaison with Mid Atlantic Off-Road Enthusiasts, said.

Kudzu creates a multitude of problems for native flora as an invasive species. Their broad leaves hog sunlight from other plants, allowing the kudzu to thrive while native plants to die off.

Also, kudzu causes safety hazards by destroying the tree canopy. The kudzu wraps itself around trees, taking their sunlight and weighing the trees down.

Sometimes limbs fall off. Other times, it can be the whole tree.

"The fact that we have a city asset there, being the trails, which are very popular, they're purpose-built mountain bike trails, it becomes a hazard if trees are falling directly on someone," Ingram said.

Alfano was the one who noticed the problem of kudzu first, Ingram said. Alfano, Ingram and others discussed how they could get rid of the kudzu through methods like herbicide or physically removing it.

However, herbicide could kill other plants and pulling out kudzu would have required the city's Public Works Department to do it, costing time and money.

Instead, the town looked into goats and sheep to eat the kudzu, already a popular method of land management. They feed on the plants, and fertilize as they go.

Military bases use the animals for landscaping. They're also used on solar fields to keep weeds down.

"This approach is one way we are integrating sustainability into the overall plan," Jeremy Mose, Brunswick's assistant city administrator, said in a statement.

Additionally, the goats and sheep, from Browsing Green Goats in Calvert County, were affordable. For the two weeks and 24/7 treatment, it cost the city $5,500, or $1 per animal per hour, Ingram said.

This isn't a permanent solution to the invasive vine, Ingram said. It's likely the city will do the same treatment annually.

After the goats and sheep are done chowing on kudzu, there will be a second phase to the vine removal, Ingram said. That's still being figured out.

Goats and sheep clear the way. Afterward, a team of people will look for kudzu "crowns," where a node touches the ground, propagates and creates roots for the vines.

Volunteers or city employees will either spray the crowns with herbicide or dig them out, she said.

"It does sound like we are going to have them out there every year, so we're gonna keep it at bay," Ingram said.

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