Need to clear out invasive plants such as blackberry bushes and reclaim land for a park? No problem. Invasive plant species are a problem to us, but are dinner to a goat!   Rent-a-Ruminant is a goat service for hire that is coming with 60 goats in tow to eat their way through blackberries, scotch broom, and other invasive plants.  Goats will be in the Highlands for three days chomping on all the invasive foliage that has overtaken Cotton Hill Park. 

 Cotton Hill Park?  I’ve lived in the Highlands for 14 years and had no idea where this park is located.  Cotton Hill Park is at the west end of NE 100th St. in Kirkland’s Highlands. Here’s a map to see the location of the park.

Looking east up NE 100th from Cotton Hill Park Entrance

It’s a park, however, in its current state, it’s more like a path.  You can reach the park area by following a series of steps down a steep slope. 

View looking up the entrance steps to NE 100th St.

 These steps lead to the path below.

You can see from the photos below how the park has become overgrown.  It’s virtually unuseable, except as a path. 

On the other side of the park steps connect to Crestwoods Park. 

The goal of Kirkland’s Earth Day event and the reason Kirkland is giving the goats a feast of invasive plants, is to reclaim the land for a park.   Here’s where a little ingenuity and a lot of planning between people in the Highlands and the city of Kirkland will get the job done.  Karen Story, our neighborhood organizer,thought it was time to reclaim the park.  She and her partner came up with the idea to rent goats to do the job.

 The advantages of the goat service are listed in the Rent-a-Ruminant website:

“They have a low impact on the environment due to their cloven hooves.
 They are natural climbers and love steep slopes and uneven terrain.
 They can go where machinery and other modes of brush removal are not allowed to go.
 They are cost effective in many situations.
 They are walking fertilizer factories.”

The goats are scheduled to start munching on April 17th.  I’ll write a another post about what to expect when the goats come and how you can help! The goats will give a great start to clearing the land and reclaiming it for a park, but people will also need to volunteer to help.