Grace Jacobson / News Director

Expect to see goats at Quarry Park.

Goats made their debut at Quarry Park this week as part of the restoration efforts of native forests in the park.

Stearns County Parks is undertaking restoration of 90 acres of Quarry Park forest, wetland and rock outcrops.

Stearns County says the main focus of the work is the removal of non-native invasive buckthorn through a three-year sustained effort of cutting, spraying and goat browsing.

Great River Greening Sr. Program Manager Wiley Bucks says, “Goats prefer buckthorn leaves over most everything else…. Goat browsing has some unique benefits and opportunities like ‘under hoof seeding,’ where we spread native forest grass seed in the goat paddocks before they arrive and then the goats work the seed into the ground.”

Stearns County say the goats will be in a fenced area and will be monitored by the Goat Watcher Volunteer Group.

Those interested in becoming a “Goat Watcher” can email GoatDispatchInfo@gmail.com.