Goats’ Visit to Hillsborough Town Hall Delayed

Due to snow covering the ground, a visit from goats to Hillsborough’s Town Hall has been postponed to Feb. 11, weather permitting.

Goats from the Goat Patrol were to graze on Town Hall property Tuesday, Feb. 2.

The Goat Patrol is an environmentally sustainable landscape management business based in Durham. It is helping the Hillsborough Tree Board to eradicate English ivy from Town Hall property. Goats will graze the property inside a portable 12-volt electric fence, which will be erected the day before.

English ivy, a groundcover, was planted extensively in this area before its negative impacts were known. It now is invading woodlands. English ivy chokes out native vegetation and climbs trees, effectively strangling trees by reducing water and nutrient transport within a tree.

The best way to deal with the vines is to cut them off at ground level and to let them die and fall off the trees. Removing all the vines from a tree is labor intensive and not cost-effective. The use of goats is an inexpensive and environmentally friendly way to reduce the vine problem and to save on human labor costs.