Government

Parks Chief: Goats Pulled ‘A Little Bit Early’ from Irwin

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Though the goats installed at Irwin Park did well in their first summer of chewing up invasive plants, the animals appear to have been pulled from their work just a little too soon, officials said. The five goats who arrived at Irwin in July under a town-approved contract went to work immediately on the invasives and especially Japanese Knotweed, which had grown so high it encroached on the Flexi-pave path at the western end of the park, officials said. “There is a lot of knotweed that came back, a lot of stuff was growing again,” Parks Superintendent John Howe said during the Oct. 16 meeting of the Parks & Recreation Commission, held at Lapham Community Center. “I think they pulled them a little bit early.”

The Board of Selectmen in June approved a $10,200 contract with Rhinebeck, N.Y.-based Green Goats to have the goats work at Irwin this year, with funds provided by the New Canaan Garden Club.

Allyson Halm

‘A Green Way to Manage Weeds’: Goats Arrive at Irwin Park

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A popular local park last week gained five new caprine residents, who are doing their part to eradicate invasive plants from the town’s green spaces. The goats—Chalupa, Beau, Stewie, Miss Bo Peep and Bella—arrived at a half-acre paddock in Irwin Park on Wednesday, where they “started to eat immediately,” according to Director of Public Works Tiger Mann. Their arrival went very smoothly, Mann said. Park staff erected fencing around the paddock on Tuesday and Wednesday, with assistance from local Boy Scouts, New Canaan Garden Club volunteers and staff of Green Goats, the Rhinebeck, N.Y.-based company contracted by the town to provide the goats, Mann said. The DPW and the Garden Club have been “battling it out” against Japanese knotweed, a particularly pernicious invasive plant, in Irwin Park, located on Weed Street, for several years, Mann said.