For decades, invaders ran amok on Maclellan Island, a 19-acre nature refuge in the middle of the Tennessee River, in the heart of Chattanooga. The unwelcome guests included English ivy, Japanese honeysuckle and other invasive plants, which together formed impassable thickets that choked out native trees and shrubs.
Last year Jim Stewart, the executive director of the Chattanooga Audubon Society, which owns the island, tried to fight the invasives with fire, specifically a prescribed burn. But the marauding flora just smoked a bit, proving impervious to the flames.
That’s when the city’s fire chief, who attended the burn, offered some advice. “He said ‘Jim, you really should get some goats out there,’” Mr. Stewart recalled.
So that’s what Mr. Stewart did.
He reached out to Christina Herndon, owner of Circle N Stables, who had caprine connections. Two months later, six rented goats, paid for by donations, set hoof on the island, along with their guardian dog, Beo, a Great Pyrenees.
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