Blood Tribe turns to goats to deal with long-standing invasive weed problem

The Blood Tribe is testing out the use of goats to get rid of invasive weed species.

Blood Reserve — Following successful trials in some Lethbridge area parks, the Blood Tribe land management department is enlisting the help of goats to tackle invasive weeds.

They have partnered with the Creekside Goat Company on a pilot project designed to target leafy spurge in particular, an invasive weed that has been difficult to deal with.

Jarret Panther Bone, an invasive plant technician, says the past couple of years some areas have looked like canola fields when looking from afar.

“Because this plant is a yellow flower, so looking at the whole area you’d think you were looking at a canola field," he said.

"But this year it’s completely green and the grass is growing, which is great to see."

This is one of the first programs using goats to deal with invasive weeds on a reserve in Canada.

Over the past few years, the land management team has used a variety of methods to try and deal with the issue, but given the huge landbase they’re dealing with, the goats have been a natural fit.

“We’ve had almost 4.7 acres of badly infested spurge that we just couldn’t get to because it’s a floodplain area," said Panther Bone.

"The goats were great for that situation because they can get to the areas where we can’t go with our chemicals and graze the whole area."

Another unique benefit to the goats for the Blood Tribe is they’re trained to only go after the invasive weeds.

That means there is less impact on some of the traditional plants and native grasses in the area that are very important to locals.

It’s taken about a year to iron out all the details, and herder Rob Finck says it’s been a great partnership so far.

“We’ve loved being out here and the people have been great to work with," he said.

"Like was mentioned before, the weeds looked like canola fields, so there’s a lot of spurge and it’s taken a lot of time to get through it but we’ve had great success with it.”

The goats grazed for three weeks back at the beginning of the spring and are now wrapping up the allotted six weeks for the program here at the end of the season.

The terrain is much different from the parks in previous jobs, so there have been additional challenges when it comes to dealing with wildlife and being isolated.

Additionally, Finck says they have faced numerous challenges this year, from COVID-19 to the weather, which meant having to change some of their tactics and management to adapt.

“These animals have become very prone and they love eating spurge," he said.

"Not that we don’t have a few other jobs, and they can eat other weeds, we’re open to the idea, but spurge has been such an issue that almost all of our jobs … has brought us in to graze spurge,” Finck said.

Given the success of the program thus far, both sides say they are hoping to continue it next year.