Summary report
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Table of Contents Topic
Page
Introduction
Project Background 5
2013 Goals 6
Research Baseline Conditions 8
Vegetation Monitoring 8 Water Quality Monitoring 10
Effects of Prescribed Grazing
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Policy Analysis 14
Interviews with Prescribed Grazing Contractors, Clients and Municipal Officers
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Outreach
Chew Crew in the News
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Road Shows 18 Professional Conferences 18
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Topic Page Engagement
Special Events 20 Philosopher’s Walk 21 Volunteer Work Days 22
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Photo: Camden Stovall
The UGA Creek Chew Crew is a community-driven effort using prescribed goat grazing to improve urban forests and streams within the heart of the University of Georgia (UGA) campus. The project engages students and community members in restoring ecological function within campus watersheds, and enhancing the aesthetic quality of stream corridors. The Chew Crew also strives to demonstrate a sustainable alternative to conventional invasive species eradication and management, and contribute to an interactive and eco-revelatory campus learning environment. 4
Project Background The Chew Crew began in 2012 when the UGA Office of Sustainability funded a grant proposal submitted by Zach Richardson, who was then a senior in the university’s Bachelor of Landscape Architecture program. Richardson proposed a prescribed grazing pilot-project that would use goats to eradicate invasive plant species from a section of Tanyard Creek, an urban stream that flows through the heart of UGA’s campus. In addition to addressing the serious environmental problem of invasive species, the project eventually evolved to incorporate community engagement and public outreach. The Tanyard Creek Chew Crew thus coalesced as an effort to engage ruminants in the management of invasive species, but also to raise awareness about the value of urban streams, and engage the university community in ecological restoration.
Photo: Rita Richardson
The Tanyard Creek Chew Crew continues to test the potential of prescribed goat grazing as a sustainable alternative to conventional methods of invasive plant management, and to advance the University of Georgia’s goal of creating a sustainable learning environment. In 2013, with financial support from the UGA’s College of Environment and Design (CED), along with additional support from the Office of Sustainability, the Chew Crew initiated its second year of activities focused on improving the ecological function of Tanyard Creek and other campus forests and streams. As a result of the generous support of the university community and the hard work of numerous volunteers, the Chew Crew has continued fostering stewardship of ecological resources, celebration of local nature and culture, and the creation of landscapes that inspire learning, community, and pride of place. This report summarizes the crew’s many accomplishments during 2013.
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With continued support from the College of Environment and Design, the Office of Sustainability, the wider UGA community and beyond, the Chew Crew continued to progress toward the goal of eradicating invasive nonnative plants and improving the ecological and aesthetic quality of the Tanyard Creek stream corridor. The year also saw significant expansion of the number of academic disciplines that now play a role in this effort. Throughout 2013, Prof. Eric MacDonald (College of Environment and Design) served as the project’s faculty advisor, and graduate student Zach Richardson (Master of Landscape Architecture) served as the project coordinator. During the fall semester, MacDonald and Richardson were joined by Office of Sustainability Intern, Breanna Crowell, a senior majoring in ecology and environmental health. The CED’s Material Reuse Program continued to provide critical materials and equipment, as did the Grounds Department of the UGA Facilities Management Division. The Chew Crew also gained significant new partners for service learning and research, including faculty and students in the UGA College of Public Health, Odum School of Ecology, School of Law, and Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources. During the 2013 spring and fall semesters, nearly 150 people volunteered nearly 800 hours of service during Chew Crew Volunteer Work Day events. These figures do not include contributions of students who participated via service-learning projects, or volunteer time contributed outside of official work days. Throughout 2013, the crew’s activities were guided by nine goals. The following sections of this report provide more detailed accounts of what the crew accomplished.
Environmental Enhancement and Stewardship Goals Continue invasive vegetation management and environmental monitoring at the Tanyard Creek prescribed grazing site. Develop a methodology for evaluating prospective prescribed grazing sites on campus, and for assessing the progress of prescribed grazing treatments at Tanyard Creek and Lily Branch. Identify additional sites on campus that might be suitable for future prescribed grazing treatment and research.
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Photo: Camden Stovall
2013 Goals
2013 Accomplishments Warriors in the War against Invasives!
Photo: Ally Hellenga
Working side-by-side, the Chew Crew goats and their human helpers resumed the valiant battle against the botanical invaders that have laid claim to the banks of Tanyard Creek. By early May, most of the non-native woody vines and shrubs had been cleared from the southern portion of the site, and enough weed-free patches existed to provide planting sites for several nuttall oak (Quercus texana) saplings that were donated by the UGA Office of Sustainability. The summer of 2013 brought unusually cool, wet weather—ideal conditions for plant growth—and Tanyard Creek’s plant the invaders resurged with a vengeance. Within weeks, the tiny oaks were dwarfed by the towering sprouts and gigantic leaves of paper mulberry (Broussonetia papyrifera), and their stems were wrapped in the stranglehold of kudzu (Pueraria montana) vines. Elsewhere, Chinese privet (Ligustrum sinense), bush honeysuckle (Lonicera maackii), Silverthorn (Elaeagnus pungens), and Japanese honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica) also made a strong comeback, while English ivy (Hedera helix), wintercreeper (Euonymous fortunei), and mondo grass (Ophiopogon japonicus) expanded their coverage of the ground layer within the shadier portions of the site. By August even the Chew Crew goat shelter was in danger of being overtaken by kudzu! In October the intrepid herd and their human helpers returned to resume the battle, and by the end of November massive quantities of paper mulberry, privet, honeysuckle, and kudzu once again had been removed from the southern portion of the paddock. The goats began working more concertedly on the vast patches of wintercreeper, mondo grass, and honeysuckle that cover the ground of the heavily wooded northern end of the site. Volunteers also began helping the goats make headway against the many large specimens of glossy privet (Ligustrum lucidum) that inhabit this area. During the two weeks preceding Thanksgiving break, volunteers collected seeds of a native grass, river oats (Chasmanthium latifolium), from ornamental plantings on campus. These, along with seeds of annual rye grass (Secale cereale) and arrowleaf clover (Trifolium vesiculosum), were broadcast over patches of bare earth and on erodible slopes within the Tanyard Creek and Lily Branch prescribed grazing sites. By midDecember, many of the seeds had germinated, covering the site with a thin blanket of green in advance of the approaching winter. 7
Vegetation Monitoring During fall 2013, the Chew Crew launched a long-term effort to monitor changes in the composition and distribution of plant species within the Tanyard Creek paddock—a research initiative that was made possible through the generous contributions of several new collaborators and numerous volunteers. In the past, the crew’s assessments of vegetation changes have relied primarily on visual inspection of the site, which were augmented by images captured by three time-lapse cameras. Going forward, the crew will now have the ability to quantitatively measure the impact of grazing, and to begin addressing questions such as how individual species respond to repeated browsing by goats, or how the species composition of the ground layer changes as light levels increase due to the removal of shrub cover. By the close of the fall 2013 semester, dozens of students in landscape architecture, business, biology, ecology, and other fields had volunteered to help establish the vegetation monitoring program. Photo: Breanna Crowell
The research design for the Tanyard Creek vegetation monitoring project was developed by Prof. Elizabeth G. King (Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources, and Odum School of Ecology), with assistance from one of Prof. King’s graduate students, Ryan Unks (Integrative Conservation Ph.D. program), Prof. Jon Calabria (CED), and Prof. Eric MacDonald (CED). The monitoring plan called for the establishment of eighty two-meter-bytwo-meter “quadrats,” which were clustered in twenty groups of four. The quadrat clusters were randomly located within the paddock, and within each group of four quadrats, one was selected to be excluded from grazing by goats. Within each quadrat, Chew Crew volunteers collected baseline data pertaining to the plant species present, and the number, diameter, and height of woody stems.
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Baseline Conditions During fall 2013, volunteers collected data that yielded a snapshot of vegetation conditions at the Tanyard Creek site prior to grazing by goats. More than half of the plants present at the site are nonnative species. Of the non-native species, more than 40% are listed as Category 1 invasives by the Georgia Exotic Pest Plant Council (GEPPC), meaning that these species are considered to be “a serious problem in Georgia natural areas.” Approximately seven percent belong to the GEPPC Catewgory 2, representing a “moderate problem,” and approximately 18% have been designated Category 3, or a “minor problem” in Georgia natural areas. Non-native species accounted for 100% of the shrubs, and the majority of vines and non-grass herbaceous plants counted during the sampling process. Natives out-numbered non-natives only in the tree category, likely a legacy of the site’s history: most of the large, canopy trees became began growing prior to invasions by non-native species. The vegetation data suggest that non-native species currently dominate the shrub and ground layers of the site, impeding the ability of the native tree seedlings to become established. While the ground layer contains numerous oak, Southern hackberry (Celtis laevigata), and cherry laurel (Prunus caroliniana) seedlings, only individuals of the latter species seems capable of surviving to maturity. Although native to Georgia, cherry laurel is not common in the Piedmont region. Its abundance at Tanyard Creek may possibly reflect the widespread use of this species as a landscape plant.
Photo: Breanna Crowell
The Tanyard Creek vegetation monitoring project was designed in late August, and during the following month numerous volunteers helped collect the baseline vegetation data, and construct the twenty goat “exclosures.” Students in Professor Calabria’s Applied Landscape Ecology class (LAND 4360) took on the challenge of gathering the initial vegetation data. Their work benefitted from guidance provided by three volunteer botanical experts: Evelyn Wenk, an ecologist with the U.S. Forest Service Southern Research Station; Carmen Champagne, a naturalist and program leader at Sandy Creek Nature Center; and Brian Harding, a graduate student in plant pathology. While students and others collected the baseline data, Chris McDowell, Coordinator of the CED’s Material Reuse Program (MRP), took charge of the design and construction of the exclosures. With the exception of some new wood screws and a few other miscellaneous bits of hardware, all of the materials used in the vegetation exclosures were salvaged by the MRP from university construction and demolition waste. McDowell and his two interns, Elizabeth Lawandales and Mike McCord, helped Chew Crew volunteers assemble the exclosures during a series of six “work day” events staged in September and early October. Breanna Crowell recruited a diverse pool of student volunteers from across campus, as well as young people and adults from nearby communities. Beginning in 2014, Chew Crew volunteers will again collect data within the twenty “exclosures” and the sixty quadrats that were open to grazing. Over time, by comparing the data collected from the “exclosed” versus the open quadrats, the Crew will gain a more nuanced and informative view of how goat grazing is affecting plant communities along the stream corridor.
Native Non-native Unknown
This graph offers one picture of the results of vegetation sampling conducted in 80 monitoring quadrats established in the Tanyard Creek paddock during fall 2013. The bars indicate the number of individual species recorded, dividing them into categories of “native,” “nonnative,” and “unknown.” Native species include those considered by botanists to be native to the Piedmont physiographic region of Georgia. Non-native species are those that originally evolved in other parts of the world, while plants categorized as “unknown” represent species that either could not be positively identified in the field, or for which the place of origin is uncertain. As the graph reveals, non-native species far outnumber native species in the categories of shrubs, vines, and forbs (i.e., non-woody,, non-grass, flowering plants). Native species dominate only in the category of trees—largely because these represent the native canopy species that were established decades ago along the stream. 9
Greener Pastures? Is prescribed grazing a viable strategy for managing invasive plants elsewhere on campus? That is a question the Chew Crew hopes to pursue further in 2014. During summer and fall of 2013 a group of students in the UGA College of Engineering began consulting with Chew Crew project coordinator Zach Richardson and UGA Facilities Management personnel about the possibility of deploying goats to remove invasive vegetation from Driftmier Woods, a patch of upland oak-hickory-beech forest located south of Driftmier Engineering Center. While it remains uncertain whether prescribed grazing would be an appropriate treatment at this site, UGA faculty, students, and professional staff look forward to investigating this possibility.
Environmental Research and Monitoring Goals Continue researching the environmental impact of prescribed grazing in order to develop “best practices” for future efforts. Expand empirical research on the community engagement aspects of prescribed grazing, and expand the study of regulatory frameworks for prescribed grazing initiatives.
2013 Accomplishments Water Quality Monitoring Tanyard Creek exhibits many symptoms that are typical of impaired urban streams in the U.S. Southeast: increase in stormflow magnitude, decrease lag time to peak flow, reduction in channel complexity and increases in errosion. In addition to these characteristics, Tanyard Creek suffers from comromised water quality as well. Based on long term data collected by Reid Brown of the Upper Oconee Watershed Network, water quality in Tanyard Creek ranks in the bottom one-third of streams in AthensClarke county, consistently returning high conductivity (>100µS/cm) and culturable E. coli (>1000 CFU) values. A 2003 macroinvertebrate survey returned a poor score of 5 (Georgia Adopt-a-Stream SOS score). While the long-term goal of the Chew Crew project is to improve the ecological function of the Tanyard Creek corridor by removing exotic invasive vegetation, the effort also strives to minimize negative impacts to stream 10
water quality. To advance this goal, a number of UGA faculty, students, and community volunteers joined forces to begin collecting data that will allow the crew to more accurately assess how prescribed grazing may impact Tanyard Creek water quality. These efforts also helped the Chew Crew advance the university’s teaching and research mission, while also engaging the surrounding community in environmental stewardship.
photo: Eric Macdonald
photo: Ally Hellenga
Throughout the fall 2013 semester, graduate students in Dr. Todd Rasmussen’s Quantitative Hydrology course (WASR 4500/6500) learned how to set up automated water sampling equipment, and how to analyze water samples collected during rain events for temperature, dissolved oxygen, pH, specific conductance, and turbidity. The students obtained data from two storm events prior to the goats’ arrival, and one storm event during the fall grazing period. During the same period, students in Dr. Erin Lipp’s graduate-level course, Advanced Topics in Aquatic, Microbiology, Health and Environment (EHSC 8310), measured background levels of fecal indicator bacteria (e.g., E. coli) before the arrival of goats, and during the prescribed grazing period. The students also measured the persistence of E. coli in goat feces under sunlight and shade conditions, and sought to determine whether there are other sources of contamination that may impair water quality. Due to high levels of bacterial contamination from leaking sanitary sewer pipes, pet waste, and other sources, Dr. Rasmussen noted that he and the students doubted that the goats would cause “any noticeable change in the stream quality.” Nonetheless, students were eager to investigate the issue and contribute to a better understanding of how prescribed grazing may affect urban streams. According to Keri Lydon, graduate teaching assistant for EHSC 8310, students were “really excited to study water quality and the Chew Crew.” Students in both courses also hoped their involvement in the Chew Crew project would highlight the water quality problems that exist on the UGA campus. Sassy Morton, a student in WASR 4500/6500, suggested that the Chew Crew might help draw attention to “the lack of awareness among the general public about water quality issues in our own backyard.” Lauren Heidingsfelder, a graduate student in EHSC 8310, echoed this sentiment: “Forget zombie apocalypse! Watch out for bacteria.” The data gathered by both classes suggest that Tanyard Creek is heavily impacted by sources of contamination that originate beyond the boundaries of the Chew Crew paddock. This result was not surprising. The samples collected by EHSC 8310 students showed levels of E. coli and enterococci contamination that consistently exceeded EPA-recommended limits. The students also determined that E. coli is persistent in goat 11
For the fall 2013 pilot study, UOWN volunteers collected nine samples and sent three of these to the U.S. EPA Region 4 lab to be tested for human and ruminant contamination. By measuring both human (HF183MGB) and ruminant (Rum2Bac) E. coli markers, the experiment aimed to quantify how much the prescribed grazing is contributing to the E. coli contamination of Tanyard Creek. The results reaffirmed the overall picture of Tanyard Creek as a highly-impaired urban stream: E. coli measurements exceeded EPA recommended limits for each sample date. All three samples tested, were positive for E. coli traced to human sources, and one sample collected during a rain event in September recorded 600,000 CFU E. coli concentration. However, all but one sample returned levels of the 12
photo: Eric Macdonald
Students in WASR 4500/6500 and EHSC 8310 demonstrated just how difficult it is to ascertain the actual impact of the Chew Crew herd versus other possible sources of contamination. During fall 2013 another partnership—this time with the Upper Oconee Watershed Network (UOWN) and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region 4—aimed to resolve this dilemma. The UOWN and EPA study utilized an analysis method that tests Escherichia coli bacteria for a specific DNA marker called Rum2Bac, which is identified only with bacteria that originated from the digestive tract of ruminants like cattle, sheep, or goats. The analysis technology relies on the fact that while E. coli bacteria are commonly found in the digestive tracts of many species of warmblooded organisms, particular strains of E. coli strains vary genetically from one another in ways that can be tied to the taxonomy of the host species (e.g., primates, ruminants, rodents, canines, etc.). Presumably, the strain of E. coli that is found in the digestive tracts of ruminants can live only in ruminants, E. coli in humans can only survive in human digestive systems, and E. coli that lives in the soil is different from both of these. Rum2Bac analysis thus allows detection of the DNA of the ruminantspecific strain of E. coli, thereby allowing the bacteria that originated from a cow, sheep or goat to be disaggregated from E. coli that originated from other mammals.
photo: Eric Macdonald
feces, suggesting that there is potential for the goats’ presence to impact uncontaminated water. The bacteria were shown to persist for at least two weeks, with no significant difference detected in the levels found in feces collected in shade conditions versus those that came from locations with full sun exposure. The students recommended that future researchers test goat feces for additional pathogens, develop experiments to evaluate prescribed grazing at a less polluted site, or model bacterial loading from goat feces during and after a rain event.
Rum2Bac E. coli strain that were below the detection limit of the test. The results of water quality monitoring in 2013 yielded both good and bad news. The bad news, as expected, is that Tanyard Creek is a highly impacted urban stream. Tanyard Creek suffers from high levels of bacterial contamination, some of it sourced to humans, which probably implicates leaky sewer pipes as the main cause. One sample recorded a CFU of 600,000, which is what one would expect from untreated sewage. According to UOWN data the stream also suffers from chronic high conductivity, as well as a high nitrate concentration. Both of these are common in urbanized streams suffering from a myriad of contaminant sources. The good news is that the Chew Crew goats appear to have minimal impact on the microbial contamination of Tanyard Creek at base flow. This would imply that, unlike cattle, the goats are not spending much of their time walking or standing in the stream. During one rain event, the Rum2Bac marker was detected at the upper sample location, but it was below detection limit at the downstream sample site. At present, little is known about the persistence of the Rum2Bac marker and the extent to which it may be tracked downstream from the source. However, the fact that the Rum2Bac marker was detected during the rain event at the upstream site shows that goat-sourced fecal material is entering the stream and impacting water quality near the source at the very least. Additional sampling during spring 2014 is intended to produce data that will allow UOWN and the Chew Crew to better quantify this impact.
Research on the Irresistible, Alluring Charisma of Capra aegagrus hircus Could the mere presence of goats in an urban landscape encourage people to stop, look, listen, and pay closer attention to the environment around them? This is the question that graduate student and Chew Crew project coordinator Zach Richardson investigated during fall 2013. The study was a follow-up to a paper entitled, “Four-legged Ecorevelatory Agents of Engagement: Prescribed Grazing as a Tool for Community Building, Ecological Restoration, and Public Interaction,” written earlier in the year by Zach Richardson and Eric MacDonald. Based on observations of the various forms of human social engagement that occurred as a result of the Chew Crew’s first semester in 2012, Richardson and MacDonald proposed that the animals that are the heart of prescribed grazing might also be valuable resources for generating public interest in local ecological restoration. Indeed, whenever the Chew Crew herd is on the site, it is not uncommon to see students, faculty, and other urban dwellers pausing to watch the goats eating, ruminating, or cavorting in the landscape. 13
To begin testing this hypothesis, Richardson analyzed the levels and types of public interaction with the Tanyard Creek landscape along a stretch of fence line near the heavily-trafficked and highly-visible Baxter Street pedestrian corridor. Observations were conducted with a video camera during one-hour periods on three Saturday mornings during the fall, each during a different University of Georgia home football game. These observations were strategically timed to correspond with periods when crowds of football spectators and other celebrants walk near the test site on their way to the stadium or the central part of campus. Richardson’s results indicated that the presence of goats in the landscape was correlated with the rate at which passersby engaged with the site. When goats were present, dozens of people stopped, approached the site, and displayed various reactions to the scene, ranging from reading informational signage, taking pictures, and conversing with others along the fence. When goats were absent, only two people actively engaged with the site! Interestingly, that sole pair—an adult male and a young child—walked slowly together along the fence. The young girl skipped ahead of her adult guardian, repeatedly pausing to peer into the paddock. There is no way to be sure, but perhaps that young girl fondly remembered the Chew Crew from past UGA football game days, and visited the site again in hopes of seeing another “four-legged lawn mower.” In any event, the results of these observations lend further support to the hypothesis that these animals may have the ability to attract passersby and engage them in the process of urban landscape management.
Policy Analysis Throughout fall 2013, Prof. Eric MacDonald (CED) worked with two graduate students in the School of Law, Setareh Davoudzadeh and Koleen Sullivan, who studied prescribed grazing in Professor Laurie Fowler’s Environmental Law Practicum (ECOL 8710). This research built upon a study initiated by graduate students Michael Salter (School of 14
photo: Jordan Tubbs
Some passersby call to the animals in an attempt to get a closer look or to offer them treats of carrots or apples. On one occasion, Richardson overheard one onlooker yelling to friend across the street, “Oh my gosh! Have you seen the llamas?” While her exclamation was not exactly accurate biologically, it supported the notion that goats may be a useful tool for engaging communities that live, work, and play around creatively managed urban landscapes. When goats are a visible component of an urban landscape management plan, perhaps people are more inclined to be drawn to the site.
Law) and Zachary Richardson (CED) during fall 2012, which resulted in a preliminary survey of the ways in which municipal ordinances impact prescribed grazing practices. Davoudzadeh and Sullivan further explored the relationships between prescribed grazing and common municipal regulations governing land use and domestic animals in urban settings, and conducted interviews with prescribed grazing service providers, clients, interested citizens, and municipal officials. At the end of the fall semester, Davoudzadeh and Sullivan produced a report that summarized the key issues related to permitting and regulating urban prescribed grazing and assessed the ways in which these issues are manifested in the existing municipal code of Athens-Clarke County. The concluding section of their report consists of a suggested ordinance for permitting and regulating prescribed grazing in Athens-Clarke County. A PDF of Davoudzadeh’s and Sullivan’s report is available for download from the website of the UGA Odum School of Ecology’s River Basin Center (http:// www.rivercenter.uga.edu/). Davoudzadeh’s and Sullivan’s research identified a number of significant “unknowns” related to prescribed grazing “best management practices” (BMPs)—questions that pertain both to the conditions necessary to ensure optimal effectiveness of grazing treatments, as well as measures that may be needed in order to minimize possible negative environmental impacts. Over time, the vegetation and water quality monitoring projects initiated by the Chew Crew in 2013 may shed light on some of these issues. In the meantime, however, additional insight may be obtainable from further investigation of the existing scientific literature related to the grazing habits of goats and sheep, and associated impacts on soil and water quality. Most of this literature stems from studies conducted in rural pasture or rangeland settings, and many of these have taken place in regions other than the Southeastern United States. Nonetheless, a review of this literature may help researchers formulate hypotheses about the effects of goats and sheep in urban settings in the Southeast, inform efforts to formulate preliminary BMPs for prescribed grazing in this region, and provide a research agenda for future prescribed grazing experiments.
Interviews with Prescribed Grazing Contractors, Clients, and Municipal Officials Last year, as part of their research into the regulatory questions associated with prescribed grazing, Salter, Richardson, and MacDonald initiated a series of semi-structured interviews with practitioners, land owners, government officials, and interested citizens. Several interviews were 15
photo: Eric Macdonald
conducted during the spring, summer, and fall 2013. The information provided by interviewees has influenced some of the management practices undertaken by the Chew Crew during the past year. As the body of interview data grows, we expect this information will prove valuable to future consideration of prescribed grazing BMPs, as well as assessment of the various social aspects of the practice. During summer 2013, Richardson completed an internship with one of the interviewees, Brian Cash, the owner of Ewe-niversally Green, a successful prescribed grazing business in metropolitan Atlanta. This experience allowed Richardson to expand and deepen his knowledge of urban prescribed grazing. In addition to Cash, other key informants included Ms. Jennif Chandler, who owns a prescribed sheep grazing business located in Madison County, Georgia, and Jesse Bennett, owner of Driftless Land Stewardship based in Bagley, Wisconsin. Chandler has undertaken numerous grazing projects in urban settings in metropolitan Atlanta and Athens, including projects at the State Botanical Garden of Georgia, and the University of Georgia campus. In contrast, Bennett’s company, which now deploys a herd of more than 300 goats from two different “base pastures,” focuses primarily on managing vegetation in high-quality natural areas, most of which are located in rural settings in Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa. The varying experiences of these professional practitioners are helping us better understand the many factors that contribute to a successful prescribed grazing operation, the range of approaches to herd management, and the factors that differentiate grazing in urban versus rural environments. We look forward to extending this research in 2014.
photo: Eric Macdonald
Jesse Bennett, owner of Driftless Land Stewardship based in Bagley, Wisconsin, deploys over 300 goats which can be seen below.
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Outreach and Communication Goals Share the Chew Crew initiative with the public via local and regional news media, and participate in scholarly and professional dialog about prescribed grazing through presentations at regional, national, and international conferences.
2013 Accomplishments Chew Crew in the News! Public outreach and engagement are core aspects of the Chew Crew’s work. During 2012 our efforts to improve Tanyard Creek by removing invasive, non-native vegetation benefited from media coverage by local, national, and international news organizations. We were fortunate to garner additional news coverage during 2013—stories that both chronicled our accomplishments, as well as helped us spread the word about prescribed grazing at UGA. Articles about the crew appeared in the 10 April edition of the Athens Banner-Herald; the 15 April and 4 November issues of Columns, the University of Georgia’s bi-weekly newspaper for faculty and staff; and the 24 April and 21 October editions of the Red & Black, the University of Georgia student newspaper. The crew appeared in both the summer and winter editions of Georgia Magazine, the semi-annual publication produced for alumni by the University of Georgia’s Office of Public Affairs. The Chew Crew also was featured in an illustrated article written by Zach Richardson for the 2013 edition of Georgia Landscape, the annual publication produced by students at the University of Georgia, College of Environment and Design. A number of these news stories featured photographs produced by undergraduate student David Bristow (Journalism), who has served as the crew’s unofficial photographer since spring 2012. Bristow has also produced several short videos about the Chew Crew, which may be viewed via YouTube and his professional website (http:// www.dcbristowphoto.com/).
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Road Shows
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Thanks to the Chew Crew, I feel as if I had made an impact on campus, explored possible career options for the future, and made connections with people from different parts of campus. The Chew Crew has been my favorite part of my first semester in college and I look forward to helping out next semester. Natalie Geng
As in 2012, the Chew Crew made a number of “celebrity guest appearances” at local community events, effectively taking the crew’s message about the role of goats and sheep in combating invasive species “on the road.” Graduate student Zach Richardson and some of the Chew Crew’s kid goats were featured at the Green Life Expo held in downtown Athens on 9 February, and at the University of Georgia’s Earth Day celebration at the Tate Student Center plaza on 22 April. In addition to publicizing issues associated with invasive species management, these events gave local children and adults an opportunity to meet and interact with the Chew Crew herd. One of the crew’s most celebrated public appearances occurred during the evening of 23 March, when human and caprine members of the crew graced the closing ceremonies of LABash at Terrapin Brewing Company. An annual North American conference staged by students of landscape architecture, LABash 2013 was hosted by students at the University of Georgia. The Chew Crew project was represented at various venues during the three-day event, culminating in the conference finale at Terrapin when, for a few hours, the Chew Crew’s Junior, Sylvester, Bruce, and Wickett were the toast of the town.
Aspects of the Chew Crew project were shared with audiences at a number of academic and professional conferences during 2013. On 22 and 23 February, Zach Richardson delivered a presentation and poster on prescribed grazing at the annual conference and expo held by Georgia Organics, a statewide non-profit organization that promotes organic and sustainable agriculture. On April 2, Richardson represented the Chew Crew at the UGA Graduate Student Association’s 13th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference. Richardson also gave presentations to a local garden club in Atlanta, and to the Society for Environmental Engineers, a UGA student organization. At the conclusion of the fall 2013 semester, Breanna Crowell gave a presentation on the Chew Crew’s work at the UGA Office of Sustainability’s “Semester in Review: Creating a Culture of Sustainability at UGA,” an event that also included poster presentations by Chew Crew’s fall semester service-learning projects: water quality monitoring by Prof. Todd Rasmussen’s Quantitative Hydrology (WASR 4500/6500) and Prf. Erin Lipp’s Advanced Topics in Aquatic, Microbiology, Health, and Environment (EHSC 8310), and vegetation sampling in Prof. Jon Calabria’s Applied Landscape Ecology (LAND 4360). These activities allowed the Chew Crew to engage local and regional audiences. 18
photos by: Eric Macdonald
Scholarly and Professional Conferences
Research stemming from the crew’s work also reached international audiences through presentations delivered at two major academic conferences. On 28 March, Michael Salter, Zach Richardson, and Eric MacDonald presented a paper at the annual meeting of the Council of Educators in Landscape Architecture (CELA) in Austin, Texas, entitled “Prescribed Goat Grazing in Urban Settings: A Pilot Study of the Legal Framework in Nine U.S. Cities.” The following day, Richardson and MacDonald presented a paper entitled, “Four-legged Ecorevelatory Agents of Engagement: Prescribed Grazing as a Tool for Community Building, Ecological Restoration, and Public Interaction,” an account and analysis of the social and cultural dimensions of the Chew Crew initiative. Both papers generated interest and lively discussion among members of CELA, a professional organization of scholars and teachers in the field of landscape architecture from throughout the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Both papers also were accepted for publication in the peer-reviewed conference proceedings. Six months later, MacDonald, Richardson, and Salter presented revised and expanded versions of these research papers at the 5th World Conference on Ecological Restoration, held by the Society for Ecological Restoration (SER) in Madison, Wisconsin. The authors’ research on municipal ordinances was delivered by MacDonald in an oral presentation, while a discussion of the cultural implications of urban prescribed grazing was presented in the form of a poster entitled, “Tanyard Creek Chew Crew: ‘Biophilia,’ and Interspecies Collaboration in Ecological Restoration.” More than 1200 delegates from across the world attended the conference. Due to the high demand for speaking slots, authors were allowed to deliver only one oral paper presentation and one poster presentation, and presentations within both formats were subjected to a rigorous peer review process. Participation in the SER world conference thus afforded the Chew Crew a valuable opportunity to engage in an international-level conversation about invasive species management and ecological restoration. These activities also helped the crew meet potential collaborators in other parts of the world, including researchers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Royal Botanic Gardens in Melbourne, Australia.
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Engagement Goals Expand the volunteer base, and secure materials and financial resources to allow the continuation and expansion of the Chew Crew into the 2013-2014 grazing seasons. Develop fun, educational events that allow the public to experience the Tanyard Creek site’s transformation, and interact with the herd, including weekly Volunteer Work Days, Earth Day, and UGA Homecoming.
2013 Accomplishments Special Events In addition to the Chew Crew’s participation in UGA’s annual Earth Day celebration, two special family- and children-focused events were staged at the Tanyard Creek prescribed grazing site as part of the university’s annual “G-Day” celebration on 6 April, and Homecoming on 9 November. Both events featured children’s activities, food, opportunities for the public to interact with the crew’s caprine members, posters, and other educational displays. The Chew Crew’s Homecoming celebration included children’s games and craft activities coordinated by student volunteers, many of whom represented the UGA student chapter of the Society for Conservation Biology. Local Athens grocers Fresh Market and EarthFare both contributed to the event. Student volunteers made tasty snacks from goat cheeses donated by Fresh Market, and Earth Fare’s Bridget Thompson joined the students in offering samples of goat yogurt snacks, and helping passersby sign up for a free raffle featuring an Earth Fare-donated basket of UGA Bulldawg-themed snacks and goodies. The UGA Office of Sustainability and the Athens-Clarke County Stormwater Management Program both contributed equipment and educational materials. Perhaps the focus of the Chew Crew Homecoming celebration was a small, temporary paddock along Baxter Street constructed specifically for the event. There, visitors could pet members of the crew’s core herd—Junior, Sylvester, Bruce and Wickett—and feed them tasty sprigs of privet, honeysuckle, and kudzu. The goats also enjoyed crunching the ripe acorns that covered the floor of their special paddock. The morning of Homecoming 2013 was truly a delicious and fun occasion for all!
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Goat Chip Boats Tostitos Scoops Goat cheese crumbles Baby arugula Balsamic vinaigrette Toss desired amounts of goat cheese and arugula and drizzle lightly with vinaigrette. Spoon into chips and serve.
Apple-Goat Cheese Crisps Apples Honey Mild goat cheese Slice apples thinly and uniformly. Cut goat cheese to desired shape to cover about half of the surface area of one apple slice. Drizzle with honey and serve alone or with crackers on the side.
Philosophers Walk with the Tanyard Creek Chew Crew
photo: Eric Macdonald
One of the highlights of the fall 2013 semester was a special Chew Crew “philosophers walk”—an event in which nearly two dozen UGA students, faculty members, and staff participated in a guided tour of the Tanyard Creek goat paddock, a goat-themed potluck supper, and a discussion hosted by the University of Georgia’s Environmental Ethics Certificate Program (EECP). The event, part of the EECP’s 30th anniversary celebration, began with an early evening walk along the creek with EECP Program Coordinator, Dorinda Dallmeyer, Chew Crew “herders” Zach Richardson, Mikey Salter and Eric MacDonald, and a dozen of the crew’s most illustrious goats. UGA professors Todd Rasmussen and Elizabeth King also joined in the walk, each contributing their expertise to the discussion. Rasmussen explained the water quality monitoring project that he and his students were conducting in conjunction with the Chew Crew prescribed grazing project, and discussed the many kinds of damage that human activities inflict upon urban streams such as Tanyard Creek. King explained the current vegetation monitoring research at Tanyard Creek, and reflected on how grazing might generally be expected to alter the composition and structure of the site’s plant community. Following the walk, participants gathered at the Founders Memorial Garden House for a light potluck supper, a presentation by Eric MacDonald on the historical and cultural roots of goat herding, and a discussion about the ethical dimensions of environmental restoration, urban ecologies, and human relationships with domesticated animals. The event revealed that the disciplines typically associated with UGA’s “North Campus”—history, philosophy, languages, and other humanities—have much to offer with respect to thinking about the problems and potential associated with prescribed grazing. We look forward to collaborating further with the EECP to foster this cross-campus dialogue.
Lizze King’s ‘Goat Food Salad’ Recipe Finally—a recipe that makes cabbage seem exciting! Dressing, mixed up in a glass something: 3 oz lime juice 2 oz miso paste OR anchovy paste 2 1/2 oz rice wine vinegar 3 tbsp sugar 2 serrano chilies, minced 2 cloves garlic minced 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes 1 tsp dry mustard Foliage: (quantities inevitably eyeballed or whatever i have) ~4c cabbage (I used green & red) 3/4 c cilantro (I used culantro) 3/4 c mint leaves 1/4 c basil (thai if you have it, I used regular) 2 scallions Mix up the dressing until all of the ingredients are nicely emulsified. Chop the foliage, pour the dressing on, and toss.
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Volunteer Work Days
Photo: Ally Hellenga
At the very heart of the UGA Chew Crew project are “Volunteer Work Days”—times that are set aside during both the spring and fall grazing seasons especially to provide opportunities for students and others to interact with Tanyard Creek and the Chew Crew goats. It is also during these events when the combined forces of the goats and their human helpers result in the most dramatic transformation of Tanyard Creek environment. Due to a nearly constant influx of soda cans, beer bottles, food wrappers, bicycle and automobile parts, and other sundry items of contemporary urban life into the stream corridor, trash pick-up is a perennial chore, but also one that is willingly performed by many volunteers. As one volunteer put it, “If I was a goat, I wouldn’t like it if people kept trashing my home!” Tanyard Creek’s volunteer garbage collectors also serve as amateur urban archaeologists: the activity frequently yields artifacts that reveal layers of the site’s past, such as handformed bricks, slabs of concrete, shards of marble, bits of brilliant colored glass and decorative ceramics, 1970s-era toy cars. As a way to visually demonstrate the volume of garbage collected during the fall grazing season, volunteers assembled two large wire bins near the main entrance to the Tanyard Creek paddock, one to hold recyclable items, and the other to contain non-recyclables. Both bins were nearly filled between midOctober and the end of November 2013.
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The following essay was written by Max Weyrick, an undergraduate student enrolled in Prof. Eric MacDonald’s fall semester course, History of the Built Environment I (LAND 2510). Students in the course were given an opportunity to earn extra credit by participating in Chew Crew work days, and composing an end-of-the-semester reflection essay that related their experience to what they had learned in the course. All in a Day’s Work By Max Weyrick “Time to go.” That is all I remember after our environmental history lesson, before getting shoved into a cade with my friends and superiors. The cage kept bumping, everyone kept falling over, and we know nothing could be done. Finally, the gate opened and it became a scramble for space. Once we emerged from our crammed space, we embraced this new world we saw around us. My friend pondered, “I wonder if this is how Columbus felt after getting off the Santa Maria!” I slowly moved around, seeing nothing familiar. The humans approached and began petting me. I tolerated it because of the carrots I received as I stood there longer. I saw some humans rolling up old fence wire, and other spreading small objects that smelled like food. As I explored further, I saw it—a river. I asked myself, “Could this be the Nile River we learned about? No, no pyramids or desert.” I went to the stream and began to drink the cold, refreshing water. Once I finished, I saw some type of small animal. “Were these the fish that the prehistoric people of Lepenski Vir worshipped? Are we in Serbia on the Danube? No, no tents.” Either way, I knew it had to be sacred because it is one of the four sacred landscapes of which we had learned. I turned right and saw heaven. There was grass, shrubs, and even the delicious green leaves all around. I began eating from the
Photo: Ally Hellenga
In addition to garbage clean-up, most volunteer work days included some time and human labor devoted to cutting invasive vegetation that was too tall for the Chew Crew goats to reach on their own. This was perhaps the favorite work day activity of both goats and humans. On a typical work day, saw- and pruner-wielding volunteers were deployed across the site. The goats gathered around them, eagerly stripping the foliage and tender shoots from the branches of Chinese privet, glossy privet, paper mulberry, autumn olive and other invasives nearly as fast as the volunteers could cut them. For Homo sapiens and Capra aegragus hircus alike, Volunteer Work Days were the source of some truly joyous times in the paddock!
During the past year, a number of Volunteer Work Days were wholly or partially devoted to special projects, such as the construction of the wooden “exclosures” for the vegetation monitoring program, “capital improvements” to the paddock, or preparations for public events such as the UGA Homecoming celebration. The construction of a small corral next to the goat shelter became the focus of one volunteer work day during the fall semester. Nearby, volunteers created a goat play structure from two discarded tractor tires that were found on the site. During spring semester, volunteers attached plant identification tags to various specimens of native and non-native plants within the paddock. Each tag listed the genus and species of the plant, along with its common names and symbols that indicated whether the species is native or nonnative, and whether it is a suitable candidate for cutting by volunteers
good leaves, and then … boom! Suddenly I was on my side, wind knocked out of me. Junior, our leader, saw the food right after me, and he was not going to let me eat all of it. You see, our tribe is a lot like the feudalism I learned about in class. Junior is out king, followed by three upperclassmen, two middle class, and three, including me, lower-class goats. We get pushed around and end up eating the tail end of food. But we manage. Later on, the humans began throwing down these yellow strands. It seemed like some kind of trap, until I saw my friend stand on it. I tried eating it, but held no interest for me, so I went back to looking for more shrubs. I thought about what other plants might be here and began daydreaming of maize from South America, or rice from Japan, but there was no such luck here. I went further into the jungle of trees and plants to find humans chopping branches and picking up interesting objects. One object said Cocacola, and another said Bud Light, which was odd because there did not seem to be any light coming from it. The humans looked as if they were slaves from perhaps the Roman era. However, there did not seem to be any aqueducts or buildings with pillars in front. Well, maybe they were workers for feudalism. I looked for any signs of a manor, but there were none, and I realized they must just be working on some fiefdom. Or, could they be working because they want to? I went up to a human that so kindly fed me some of the good leaves before Junior could see. However, I could not risk being there too long, so I walked further into the jungle. I was walking along the river and saw what looked like a chinampa. Maybe we were in South America, I pondered. It was in the middle of the river, so I walked over and looked for plants or any sign of food. Unfortunately, all I found were those Coca-colas and other objects like it. Besides, I did not see any mountains, and none of the water in the area tasted salty to me, so I finally marked the Valley or the 23
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What was even more encouraging to see was the excitement that the other students had just by being around the goats, whether it was feeding them carrots, trying to pet them, naming them, or just watching them work, students seemed to really have an interest, respect, and a new love for goats that seemed to be very new to them. Patrick Heslin
or consumption by goats. The tags are thus intended to be resources for volunteers, as well as tools for generally enhancing the project’s ability to build environmental literacy among the local public. During mid-November, Dexter Adams, the Director of the UGA Facilities Management Division’s Grounds Department, led students on an expedition in search of seeds of the native grass, Chasmanthium latifolium. Variously known as “river oats,” “inland sea oats,” or “woodland oats,”
College of Agriculture and Environmental Science College of Environment and Design College of Education College of Engineering College of Family and Consumer Science College of Public Health Odum School of Ecology Franklin College of Arts and Sciences School of Public and International Affairs Terry College of Business
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Mexico off the list. I reasoned that the best way to locate myself was by eliminating certain locations until I came to only a few choices. Japan seemed fitting, as this place contained many of the elements in Japanese gardens—there was water, rocks, and a fence that enclosed the land. However, there were not any lanterns of stone, pavilions, or bridges to an island. With these observations, I narrowed my considerations down to Europe and North America. Europe had many civilizations that could fit this area, so I went through all I remembered from my earlier lessons. Could it be a cloister or peristyle garden? It did have a variety of plants and shrubs, but the surroundings just did not match up. There were no pillars and the jungle seemed too large and had trees that were not characteristic of those types of gardens. I moved on to a different time period and came to Greece in the 5th century BCE. There seemed to be a very steep side of land that did have trails leading to somewhere. Could this be the Sanctuary of Apollo? I started to run at a steady pace, and searched for any kind of stadium. Reality hit when I noticed there were no mountains, stadium, or other big buildings in sight. Without losing hope, I tried thinking of other landscapes in Europe that had a slight resemblance to this one. I narrowed it down to the Boboli Gardens, Villa Medici del Trebbio, and Villa Rotunda. These all had fairly large areas of forestry or plants that made them seem like good fits. Villa Rotunda had a fairly large area of trees adjacent to its main building. So, I went along every fence and searched for anything with similar characteristics; while buildings, pillars, and brick red roof. No sign of that; it was on to Villa Medici. However, as I already made the trip around the forest I was in, this landscape clearly was not it either. Although it had many thick areas of grass and shrubs, the area I was in clearly was not designed by Michelozzo. The Boboli Gardens did have some
C. latifolium is a species that would have been a common constituent of wooded floodplains and stream corridors within the Georgia piedmont region prior to the arrival of Europeans. The species is no longer found along the banks of Tanyard Creek, however swaths of this attractive native grass have recently been incorporated into ornamental plantings elsewhere on campus. With Adams in the lead, volunteers harvested approximately twenty pounds of C. latifolium seeds from these plantings. A week before the caprine crew’s departure, Adams and other volunteers broadcast the river oats seeds, along with seeds of annual cereal rye (Secale cereale) and arrowleaf clover (Trifolium vesiculosum), in open-canopy areas of the site. After they germinate, the grass and clover plants will help stabilize and hold exposed patches of soil. The volunteer seed-sowing event was fortuitously timed in accordance with the celestial rhythms prescribed by the Old Farmers’ Almanac, which specified the waxing, near-full Beaver (November) Moon as the most auspicious time to sow seeds! Overall, nearly 150 people volunteered nearly 800 hours of service during Chew Crew Volunteer Work Day events during the 2013 spring and fall semesters. These figures do not include contributions of students who participated via service-learning projects, or volunteer time contributed outside of official work days. The final Volunteer Work Day of 2013 occurred on Friday, November 22. This work day focused on gathering the crew’s caprine members from the far-flung corners of the paddock in preparation for their return to their home pastures in Oconee County. A small group of intrepid volunteers—cheered on by a larger group of volunteer on-lookers—corralled all of the animals in a holding pen next to the goat shelter. One by one, a volunteer herder gracefully led each animal to a truck docked at the main paddock entrance gate. There, they met Ms. Charlie Kirkland, one of the owners of the goats, and their chauffeur for the journey back to their home pastures. After bidding a jubilant and heartfelt farewell to the goats, volunteers celebrated the close of the fall 2013 grazing season with sparkling apple cider “champagne,” cake, and other sweets. (Earlier in the evening, abundant treats in the form of carrots and apples also were provided for the goats!) The event was a fitting and gratifying conclusion to a big year for the Chew Crew.
promising traits that related to water, the trees, and a similar layout that was made in Florence. However, a key characteristic of sidewalks lined with maintained grass and surrounded with fountains made this another failed attempt. North America was the only area left. I started to think of the Mound Builders and the colonies settled by humans from the Old World. There seemed to be natural mounds in this jungle area, but nothing like the mounds talked about that had residential and ceremonial purposes. So now, I concluded it had to be a colony settled along the east coast. I head a whistle. Out main human called us back for some feed; figuring out my location was put on hold. We all went to get food, and suddenly we were trapped. The food made it much more tolerable, but I knew something was happening. Shortly after, we were being tugged around and finally held by rope. I worried that I never would know where I was, as we were loaded back in the terrible cage. I refused, still curious, so I muscled my way to the side of the cade and looked around as we bumped around on our way to some new location. I saw countless humans walking around and buildings with names of Russell and further along Jimmy Johns. I could not have been more confused until I saw a sign that read: Athens, Georgia. At first sight of Athens, I thought of Greece, but this Georgia location could not have been in Greece. I finally discovered where I was. After countless attempts at guessing the landscape of my surroundings, I did not come to a conclusion until I was leaving. Luckily, my group was let out, and we found ourselves back at home. I started reflecting on my day and really began to appreciate the adventure of a new location and exploring the area. I learned that no matter the location, landscapes around the world have many similar traits. However, the traits that distinguish them from one another are the reason they are unique. Hopefully, I will be exposed to more landscapes throughout my future adventures. 25
The UGA Chew Crew is a research and public service initiative of the University of Georgia, College of Environment and Design. For more information about the college, visit www.ced.uga.edu/ or call 706-369-5883.
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