Those living within city limits who want to get rid of weeds and invasive plants now have the option of hiring a team of livestock to get the job done, thanks to city council’s new “Goat Vegetation Management Bylaw.”
The bylaw was adopted by council on June 26 to provide the small company Goats on the Hoof with the means of bringing their team of weed-eating goats to Port Alberni. Goats on the Hoof, based in Errington, has been operating for four years, and has worked in various areas on the Island, including Parksville, Qualicum Beach, Lantzville, Nanaimo and Esquimalt.
Port Alberni’s new bylaw is based on an existing bylaw in Parksville, which was adopted back in 2014.
“We would be modifying it,” said director of development services Scott Smith during an earlier meeting of council. “Lots of municipalities, when they have similar issues, look at what other municipalities have done and modify it to their extent. We don’t copyright our bylaws.”
He said the bylaw has worked reasonably well for the Parksville-Qualicum area.
“It does a good job of putting out the rules and regulations as to whether this company or another company is to operate, and that’s what a bylaw is, to provide those regulations,” he added.
Councillor Chris Alemany gave the concept of goat vegetation management his full approval. “I did see them using goats in the Woodgrove parking lot, of all places,” he said. “They did a fantastic job of getting rid of blackberry bushes.”
The small business wrote a letter to council back in February, asking for permission to provide their services within the City of Port Alberni.
“We had a prospective customer, more than a year ago,” said owner Allan Iwanyshyn. “But we found out that Port Alberni doesn’t allow livestock vegetation management.”
Iwanyshyn said he thought Alberni’s city council would approve such a motion, because they seemed to be following the ways of Nanaimo and Parksville.
“The City of Parksville made a bylaw specifically for us,” he said. “[Nanaimo] just let us go to it. As long as we’re following all the rules and regulations of insurance.”
Iwanyshyn said they are allowed to spend up to 30 days on one site before the company has to move.
The company has a small herd of 11 goats that they use to target areas overrun by weeds, grasses and invasive plants. The herd is transported in a special “Herdhauler,” contained within an electric fence, and supervised 24/7 for the duration of the contract by a “goat wrangler.”
The goats will sometimes work on steep banks, but their wranglers will often work alongside them on flat surfaces, said Iwanyshyn, wielding a pair of hand loppers.
The company does not remove or haul away any debris from the site, but goats will quietly clear away most vegetation from the land, including blackberry, ivy, scotch broom, knotweed, morning glory, holly, nuisance trees and saplings, rose, nettle, thistle, tall grasses and horsetail.