permaculture

[Ute Bohnsack <sustag@eircom.net>]

Hello Martha and all!

Martha, this is superb info! Just the kind of stuff I am looking for.
Keep 'em coming! 
I shall pursue the contacts you gave.
If anyone else knows of examples like this please let me know. I hope to
apply for funding to study some of these examples in 2004 'on location'
so to speak, hopefully in order to contribute to problem-solving in the
karstic Burren area in the West of Ireland where I live.

All the best.
Ute

MARTHA ANNE BOYD wrote:
> 
> HI all -
> I went to Beyond Pesticides conference in Austin TX last weekend - 
> presentation by Lani Malmberg of "Ewe4ic Ecological Services" - she 
> contracts out her 1000 head of Cashmere goats to eat weeds throughout the 
> West.  Travels with them, doesn't put them in any kind of barn, doesn't 
> feed them other than what they graze. They use a flexible mesh electric 
> fence to protect desired plants and contain the goats (more to keep out 
> dogs). They've worked in Denver, Boulder, Vail, CO Springs, Jackson Hole, 
> Grand Teton National Park, and are proposing a big project in Owens Valley 
> CA (in't that the valley the LA  metropolitan water district destroyed?)
> 
> Her goats have pretty much eaten it all - thistles, leafy spurge, reed 
> canary grass, cholla, bindweed, poison hemlock, salt cedar - in combo with 
> revegetation projects. She views goats as self-propelled weeder - 
> fertilizer - irrigation - organic matter recycling machines. Her philosophy 
> is to improve the competitive advantage of whatever plants a land manager 
> sets as goals and to resist chasing symptoms.
> 
> I didn't know that because of the way goats chew, they crush most seeds - 
> some skeptics in a community garden tried sprouting goat-doo soil from a 
> leafy spurge field and found a 0.02% germination rate.
> 
> For more info contact Lani at ewe4icbenz@aol.com
> Also www.goatapelli.com
> 
> Martha
> 
> _______________________________________________
> permaculture mailing list
> permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/permaculture

-- 

Break the mould - commit random acts of kindness.

*********************************************************************************
Dipl.-Ing. TU Landschafts- und Freiraumplanung
Ute Bohnsack
Sailchearnach, Clogher, Kilfenora, Co. Clare, Ireland
mailto:sustag@eircom.net
Agri-Environmental Consultancy and Translation Services
(English-German-English)
http://homepage.eircom.net/~merlyn/index.html
                ~~~~~~~~~
Seedsavers Resources http://homepage.eircom.net/~merlyn/seedsaving.html
*********************************************************************************