They’re baaaack: Goats return to Riverside Park
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
They go where no man has gone before!
Well almost, grazing the thick
thorny foliage, the invasive undergrowth
in craggy, hilly parts of Riverside
Park diffi cult to manage until the goats.
They’re Green Goats (of) Rhinebeck
who, since 2007, supply goats and working
expertise for removal of undesirable
vegetation in national, state, county and
city and town parks.Twenty-fi ve weedeating
goats returned to Riverside Park
on Wednesday morning for the Riverside
Park Conservancy’s second-ever “Running
of the Goats.” The public witnessed their
trotting down the “goatway” from their
truck to a weed-fi lled hill at 120th Street.
Ten will stay for a week and then fi ve or
six will remain for the rest of the summer
to keep trim about two acres of Riverside
Park undergrowth. They’ll only eat invasive
plants.
Goats are naturally effective weed
whackers. Riverside Park Conservancy
President Dan Garodnick commented,
“Putting them to work in Gotham is like
treating them to an all-you-can-eat buffet.
It’s healthy for the goats and good for the
environment.”
Green Goats has about 180 goats and
The paparazzi and Chulupa
in the next two or three weeks the lot will
be all rented out according to Green Goats
owner Larry Cihanek.
What was the largest project you ever
had? Cihanek was asked. “Four years ago,
we brought 75 goats,” he detailed, having
to tackle four acres in Pelham Park in a
project that started very late and should
have taken 20 goats. “We fi nished in three
weeks,” Cihanek said. And yes, the goats
were very happy.
And what do they do during the approximately
eight month hiatus when they’re not
The Running of the Goats at Riverside Park.
earning and eating their keep? “They eat
$25,000 worth of hay,” Cihanek quipped.
Neighbors and slews of children lined
the goatway to pet Chulupa who greeted
the adoring crowd and posed for the
paparazzi.
During the remarks phase of the event,
Council Member Mark Levine (and winner
of Democratic primary for Borough
President) noted that weed is now legal, so
this is all good.
Representative Jerry Nadler who is in
his 15th term in Congress and has decades
of experience with old goats said that the
quality of the weeds was so good that it
was certain the goats were being paid the
prevailing wage.
PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
Chalupa is the star with Rep. Jerry Nadler, Council Member Helen Rosenthal
and Conservancy President Dan Garodnick.
Schneps Mediia July 22, 2021 13