The Goat that Swallowed the Reed

A goat munches some leaves. Photo: Brandon Heyer / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

At first glance, the common reed, also known as the phragmite, seems benign, adding a pastoral elegance to the lakes and streams where it’s found. Its flexible stalk can stretch up to six meters, swaying with the wind as its leaves rustle faintly. You can imagine ducks and other water birds hiding within its expanses, or perhaps stray insects flitting among its stalks.

Yet the common reed is an alien intruder—an invasive species from Europe that’s rampantly spreading throughout the United States’ east coast, edging out native spartina and black needle rush. It has evolved seemingly clever ways of evading eradication. Its rhizomes can stretch far beneath the ground, spreading and creating new individuals through asexual reproduction.

Fortunately, there’s a natural way to curtail its relentless advance: goats.

New York City has employed an elite team of 20 goats to help munch, chomp and chew their way through the waves of phragmites that currently coat what will soon be part of Freshkills Park, a former landfill slowly being transformed into a 2,200 acre park (about three times the size of Central Park). The hope is to first weaken the plant with the goats before applying herbicide and then laying down sand. Afterward, native species will be planted as part of the wetlands restoration project.

This is just one of many schemes to help push back a tide of invasive species- an epidemic that now affects most of the globe.

On the west coast, they use fire. Wakame, a species of brown kelp native to Japan, has begun to overgrow the majestic giant kelp forests on California’s coasts that many organisms call home. The main ingredient in miso soup, wakame is hard to kill. It clings tenaciously to debris and other organisms, or floats freely in the tide. It first came over on the hulls of ships, introduced into bays and marinas. It was recently found on Oregon’s coast on some debris washed out to sea by Japan’s tsunami. Officials scraped the wreck clean and then used low-pressure flame torches to burn away any remaining organisms.

On the east coast, the delicate-looking aquarium species known as the lionfish has invaded waters stretching from the Caribbean to New Jersey in warmer months. It’s theorized that the creatures were first introduced into Florida coastal waters by fish hobbyists. Native species have trouble recognizing the fish as a predator, and so are usually gobbled up by its gaping maw. Vengeful scuba divers have taken up spear fishing to curtail the onslaught of these fish while chefs have marketed it as a delicacy.

Pythons in Florida have firmly entrenched themselves in the Everglades, eating eggs and birds as they snake their way across the landscape. Released by pet owners, they’ve continued their advancement across Florida. Cue the Python Patrol. The group of volunteers report suspicious, over-sized snakes to the proper authorities. Chefs have even tried more culinary efforts, but they still remain at large.

We’ve also used cat food to fight cane toads; set free moths free to eat invasive cacti; released viruses to remove rabbits; and employed a host of other methods just to get rid of something that we are often responsible for bringing here in the first place. Goats might be the answer when it comes to the phragmite, but that’s not going to keep the hundreds of other species at bay.

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