Wednesday, April 05, 2006

Goats Gnawing Bush in the Bosque


NORTH VALLEY--"Wait!" Bob said, pointing across the river. I put down my bike and walked back to where we had a clear view of the west bank of the Rio Grande. Oh yeah. Goats.

I had heard they were advertising for goats to control the "alien" vegetation along the river. But somehow I never thought that it would ever happen. It seemed to be a little too rustic a solution for the 21st century.

Think again Johnny_Mango! There they were...probably about 2 dozen of them. You'll have to click on the second picture to really get a look at them. Also visible:
  1. A trailer. Must be for the goatherd.
  2. A fence between the goats and the river.
  3. Just a hint of another fence in back of the goats but in front of the jetty-jacks.

It looks like the plan is to fence off an area, let the goats eat it up under the supervision of a goatherd, then move the fence to another area. On the surface of it, a brilliant idea.

Let's turn our attention to the trailer and truck. The trailer looks to be a new Airstream complete with a rolled-up awning. The truck seems to be new or near new...red...crew cab. All I can say is that is a pretty fancy outfit for a goatherd!

I would have to guess that the MRGCD owns the trailer and maybe even the truck. I bet all told that rig costs around $100,000. Not bad for a goatherd with a couple dozen goats. Maybe use of these items is part of the contract. I'll try to find out.
Update: I have a call in to Sterling Grogan...well, I guess he was out...no word yet.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I wonder if he gets fresh goat milk as part of the deal.