Video: Kirkland residents fighting invasive plants with goats

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KIRKLAND,Wash. - Many Northwest forests are in jeopardy: native plants are being overtaken by invasive species.  Residents in one Kirkland neighborhood are now fighting to save their little piece of forest. 

The native forest of Kirkland's Cottonhill Park is dying. The trees are being choked by ivy and the native bushes and tree seedlings smothered by other invasive plants. 

"Eventually these trees will die away and there's nothing to replace them, there's no new trees to replace them," said Sharon Rodman, Kirkland Environmental Outreach and Education.  "So eventually this will end up as a blackberry and ivy, what we call a desert." 

Kirkland resident Karen Story doesn't want to see that happen, but as she told a friend clearing the two-acre park of invasive plants seems daunting. 

"This seems kind of an overwhelming challenge to clear this much land with people power and he said, 'Why don't you hire some goats?'  I said, that's a great idea," said Story. 

So residents teamed up with the city to hire a tribe of hungry goats. Sixty goats will arrive Thursday and for three days they'll munch away on invasive plants.  As they fill up, experts say the park will fill out, giving it a much-needed fighting chance. 

"It has the potential to be a really beautiful forest," said Story.  

There will still be a lot of work to be done by humans.  That's why this Saturday, the city and community are having a work party from 9:00 a.m. to noon at the Cottonhill Park. They're hoping people will show up and give a helping hand.  There will be another work party in July to help replant the urban forest with native plants.