The three Clive goats have their own Twitter account and a small fan club.

T-shirts were designed promoting their existence.

But while Clive city officials and staff are having fun with the Clive Greenbelt Goats, there’s a serious reason why the animals are kept on 5 acres near City Hall.

The 600-acre greenbelt, which stretches 11.3 miles through Clive, is infested with invasive plants such as garlic mustard, bush honeysuckle and reed canary grass. The plants are difficult to kill and, if left untreated, crowd out native plant and animal species.

Clive uses some chemicals and power equipment to get rid of the weeds, but the methods are expensive and harmful to the habitat.

“We were looking for some creative ways to manage the invasive species in the greenbelt,” said Doug Ollendike, Clive’s community development director. “Goats eat everything.”

After reviewing the issue for several years, including conducting two trial projects, the city staff in April recommended that Clive invest in an extended study to see how effective goats were at ridding honeysuckle from 5 acres north of City Hall along the greenbelt. 

(The City Council amended the city code to allow for livestock to be kept within the city limits.)  

The idea is not new. Several Iowa communities have used goats to eradicate weeds from large tracts of land. Ames, for instance, used more than 50 goats to clear honeysuckle from Ada Hayden Heritage Park in 2017.

The goats, which eat about 3 pounds of dry material a day, graze in an area and then are moved to another area and then back to the first eating area.
With each pass, the goats disturb the weeds so much that the plants are unable to absorb enough energy from the sun to make it through frost later in the year, explained Peter De Kock, Clive assistant city manager. “Evidence from other parts of Iowa suggests that after a cycle of grazing-browsing, the invasives thin out and become easier to control.”

Next spring, city staff will review how much of the native plant species was able to return to the area and how much of the weeds was eradicated. If this summer’s trial is successful, goats could be used on other parts of the greenbelt, Ollendike said. The herd could grow or shrink depending on the amount of weeds in an area.

As the Clive Greenbelt Goats do their work, families who visit the library stop to watch them. That interest prompted Clive officials to start a Twitter account for the goats and make T-shirts, which can be purchased at City Hall.