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To Control Invasive Species, Some Towns Release The Sheep

Jenn Colby's sheep are preserving pasture and controlling invasive species on town land in Randolph. Colby believes there are many other towns with land that could be used for grazing animals.
Steve Zind
/
VPR
Jenn Colby's sheep are preserving pasture and controlling invasive species on town land in Randolph. Colby believes there are many other towns with land that could be used for grazing animals.

Years ago, President Woodrow Wilsongrazed sheep on the White House lawn. The wool was sold to raise money for the Red Cross during World War I.

Today there are other reasons to pasture animals on public property in towns and villages – and two Vermont towns experimenting with the practice are seeing positive results.

In Randolph, just at the edge of the village, Jenn Colby’s sheep graze on a hillside. There’s nothing unusual about the scene, but the property doesn’t belong to Colby. It’s town land.

Colby lives nearby and pasturing her sheep here is both convenient for her and helpful to the town, which doesn’t have to keep the property mowed.

“We’re saving the town money and they’re saving us, too,” says Colby, who believes there are many other towns with land that could be used for grazing animals.  

Colby, who is pasture program coordinator with the UVM Center For Sustainable Agriculture, says pasture land like these town-owned fields surrounding the municipal water supply is easy to lose and difficult to reclaim.

“What we see here are fairly early successional species that are coming in. Goldenrod is coming in, bedstraw is coming. There are some poplars and suckers that are coming up from the ground as well,” she says.

“That’s with the town mowing it once a year. For places that aren’t even brush hogged or touched over a period of two or three or four years, it’s a lot more work to bring it back.”There’s another important reason the town is welcoming Colby’s sheep. They help control invasive plants, which are an increasing problem.

“Wild chervil and buckthorn are two big ones on that particular property,” says Sid McLam, who chairs the Randolph Conservation Commission.

He says annual mowing done by the town wasn’t effective in controlling invasive species – and hiring someone to deal with them would cost the town money.

Colby approached the commission last year and convinced them her animals could more effectively control the invasives.

“She brought pictures and documentation of what she had done and it was very clear what a difference sheep grazing could make,” he says.

In Putney, there’s another example of using grazing animals on land open to the public.

The Putney Mountain summit is a popular hiking and picnicking destination owned by a local non-profit, Putney Mt. Association.

Jenn Colby says she'd love to see sheep grazing on town greens and school lawns, providing educational opportunities for children and yet another local food source.
Credit Steve Zind / VPR
/
VPR
Jenn Colby says she'd love to see sheep grazing on town greens and school lawns, providing educational opportunities for children and yet another local food source.

Claire Wilson with the association says buckthorn was gradually taking over the summit.

“Every year we would do as much as we could in terms of cutting it back,” he says, but thebuckthornkept spreading.

The association tried applying a chemical herbicide to a small area, but Wilson says it scorched everything, and the expense was prohibitive. She says using chemicals was also at odds with the conservation goals for the land.

Then last year the association used grant money and donations to hire an Amherst, Massachusetts business called Goat Girls, which hires out their animals to help control invasives.  

This year sheep from a local farmer are grazing on Putney Mountain.  

“The board in the beginning was very, 'Oh, well, if you can raise the money, we’ll try it.' Now it's gung-ho about this and we’re getting contributions from people that we’ve never had contributions from before,” says Wilson.

She hasn’t heard about any other Vermont communities using grazing animals on public land. Neither has Jenn Colby, who says she’d love to see sheep grazing on town greens and school lawns, providing educational opportunities for children and yet another local food source.

“To be able to donate some of the meat raised to the food shelf, get it into the school system. I think it could be an amazing opportunity to do that,” says Colby. "I would love to see sheep grazing on [the median of] the interstate," Colby says with a laugh.

Ironically, while grazing animals in parks and other public spaces hasn’t caught on in Vermont, it has in many urban areas. Cities from Boston to San Francisco to Washington, D.C., are joining a sustainable landscaping movement that embraces using grazing animals.

Copyright 2015 Vermont Public Radio

Steve has been with VPR since 1994, first serving as host of VPR’s public affairs program and then as a reporter, based in Central Vermont. Many VPR listeners recognize Steve for his special reports from Iran, providing a glimpse of this country that is usually hidden from the rest of the world. Prior to working with VPR, Steve served as program director for WNCS for 17 years, and also worked as news director for WCVR in Randolph. A graduate of Northern Arizona University, Steve also worked for stations in Phoenix and Tucson before moving to Vermont in 1972. Steve has been honored multiple times with national and regional Edward R. Murrow Awards for his VPR reporting, including a 2011 win for best documentary for his report, Afghanistan's Other War.

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SOMOS CONNECTICUT es una iniciativa de Connecticut Public, la emisora local de NPR y PBS del estado, que busca elevar nuestras historias latinas y expandir programación que alza y informa nuestras comunidades latinas locales. Visita CTPublic.org/latino para más reportajes y recursos. Para noticias, suscríbase a nuestro boletín informativo en ctpublic.org/newsletters.

Fund the Facts

You just read trusted, local journalism that’s free for everyone, thanks to donors like you.

If that matters to you, now is the time to give. Join the 50,000+ members powering honest reporting and a more connected — and civil! — Connecticut.