-Cancelled- Goat herding

Submitted by Cindy Schnee

UPDATE July 6

Unfortunately, the City has requested that volunteers not participate in goat herding this season due to COVID-19 restrictions.

We will have to watch and admire the goats from a distance.

WE WANT YOU!

The Vahana goats are coming! July 13-21, 2020

You can volunteer to hang out with 265 goats on 4 different shifts/day. We can accommodate just a few volunteers/day, so if you are interested, please send in your request as soon as possible. Due to COVID 19, visitors are not allowed in camp and goats may not be touched, so this is your chance to get close to them!

Shift 1:  9:00am-12:00 pm walk from home camp by Centre Street Bridge across McHugh Bluff to grazing areas in the west. Must be able to walk/climb on uneven surfaces, stand for entire shift and tolerate sun and heat.

Shift 2: 12:00 pm - 3 pm afternoon resting camp (West side of Bluff) – will be shady, can sit if desired, bring your lunch and chew your cud with the goats!

Shift 3: 3pm - 6 pm - could be a combination of sitting, walking and climbing. Sun or shade. Must be prepared for conditions such as shift 1 and 4.  It depends on the goats! 

Shift 4:  6 pm – 9 pm - evening grazing and walk back across McHugh Bluff to home camp at Centre Street. Must be able to walk/climb on uneven surfaces, stand for entire shift and tolerate sun and heat.

Please note: Shift times are approximate. It all depends on the goats!

Age 18 and up

Suitable footwear is necessary (good tread, high top) as well as a hat and water bottle that you can store to have hands free.

You will be asked to sign a waiver and there will be a short mandatory volunteer orientation sometime in early July.

Please contact Cindy at welovegoats3@gmail.com if you are interested, with date(s) and shift(s) you prefer, how many shifts you want to do total,  as well as your t-shirt size. 

Thinking back on the goats

Submitted by Pamela Boyd  

So we all saw, or at least heard about, the goats on the bluff, right?  There were 140 of them, a couple of shepherds, two horses and a Boarder Collie making up the team.  They’ve rotated on now, but at night they were penned by the Centre Street Bridge and during the day munched their way across the breadth of McHugh Bluff from July 29 to Aug 15.

This is part of the city’s brilliant strategy for dealing with invasive plant species. They say the grazing also helps “to encourage biodiversity, the growth of native vegetation, enhance health in natural areas and is part of the City’s integrated approach to managing invasive species"..…good thing the co-op is so vigilant about tracking down Creeping Bell Flower!!   

To me, the sight of these lovely creatures ranging across our bluff, is…well….wonderful, beautiful, and visible proof of the city’s commitment to their biodiversity plan.  Just as we, in the co-op and on the Grounds Committee, are committed to our biodiversity plan. It’s not just about ensuring we are not harbouring invasive weeds, but that our own beautiful and coveted piece of inner city land is a welcoming place for all kinds of species….from bees to trees, from robins to raspberries, bats and woodpeckers and many thousands more.  

The Grounds Committee is committed.  This year saw us building bee houses for some species of non-honey-making bees; bat houses to encourage local bats to become co-op residents, if not actual members.  We wanted to attract Merlins and Kestrels to keep our Magpie numbers in check but putting up Kestrel houses turned out to be not such a good idea in our close co-op spaces. We’re hoping a house or two on the bluff may attract the aviary hunters and that when the time is right a food forest will occupy some of our land.

The goat program made me feel that perhaps the co-op and the city are partners, after all, in striving towards a truly green inner city.  Certainly it is good for them to see that our commitment is strong. And when it comes time to renegotiate our lease, the city will bear this in mind and see our value as green thumbed, inner city partners.