Bur Oak WPA Goat Grazing

The site is good quality native prairie that has become heavily infested by wild plum and sumac. Control methods began in 2006 by using a heavy carbide cutter to mow the dense and mature plum thickets. There was an immediate response by the prairie plants but the resprouting plum quickly dominated the site. Since 2006 the site has been mowed three times, burned once, treated with a wet-blade mower, and treated in the late fall with broadcast spraying of herbicide. In 2013 the site was mowed again and the larger rocks were removed to allow for mechanical treatment methods without damaging equipment. Great care has been taken when the site has been treated with herbicide so as not to harm native forbs. Due to the extreme caution used when applying herbicide, good control of the plum has not been possible. All attempts to date have failed to control the plum and may have actually caused it to become higher in stem density. We have come to the conclusion that mechanical and prescribed fire methods will not be successful at controlling the woody vegetation. Herbicide application could be successful but in order to kill the plum, most other forbs would also be killed, making the attempt to save the prairie using herbicide unsuccessful. Recently we have been approached buy two cooperators that have a large number of goats and experience with using them to control woody vegetation on other conservation lands. We would like to employ this technique as a possible solution.