PORT SHELDON, Mich. — Burr Oak Landing County Park in Ottawa County is getting rid of some unwanted fauna, thanks to a pilot project, a summer intern and eight goats owned by the Careerline Tech Center Agriscience Program.

Oriental bittersweet, an invasive species whose dense, rapid growth smothers native vegetation, was taking a toll on the park area for the popular county boat launch. Melanie Manion, Natural Resource Management supervisor for the county and Master Naturalist instructor for Michigan State University, had long wanted a prescribed grazing program within the county.

When several members of the Master Naturalist program volunteered to develop a prescribed browsing model for the county’s park system, she gratefully accepted the offer. “This was a logical way to bridge our agricultural heritage with the natural resource values in our county,” Manion said.

The project’s first year had oversight by volunteers and county staff; however, daily observation was inconsistent and required significant personnel and financial county resources. The solution was to turn the project over to a student intern from nearby Careerline Tech who is using the project as part of her Supervised Agriculture Experience project.

Eight goats are supervised by Samantha Biffel, who acts as the middle agent between the goats and the county, monitoring the animals’ health and growth.

“There has been a learning curve this year,” said instructor, Tony McCaul. “Ideally, Boer goats are best for prescribed grazing but we couldn’t find any. We are using Lamancha cross, Alpine and Pygmy goats.

“The dairy breeds are not doing as well and we have to supplement-feed them. They just don’t have the stomach to utilize the woody plants.”

Manion is surprised at the difference two summers’ worth of grazing has made at the park. “Our goal was to reduce the aboveground biomass and be able to easily control the regrowth with herbicide, but we have seen far less comeback than expected,” she said.

The goats have created accessibility into the woods and broken through barrier walls that were a result of overgrown vegetation.

The partnership with Careerline Tech Center provides a perfect example of how the two worlds – agriculture and environmental – work together.

“We really wanted a farmer who would lease goats to us, but we couldn’t find a nearby farm in that type of business. Working with a Careerline Tech student who has both an agriculture and a natural resources interest has allowed Sam to have a really good hands-on internship,” said Manion.

Not only is Biffel using her experience with the prescribed graze toward FFA awards and degrees, she hopes to submit a summary of her work to the FFA science fair during state convention next spring. She was paid for her time and travel for daily goat monitoring through a donation from the Grand Haven Foundation Youth Advisory Committee, which has committed $2,000 for the next two years to pay a student project intern.

After the goats are removed from the park this fall, they will be harvested and profits used as seed money for next year’s final leg of the project.