On Saturday, April 27, the Railyard Park will be embarking on a new (and yet ancient) venture to restore native grasslands. The project is called Graze Days and employs sheep and goat grazers in this urban grassland restoration effort. The Railyard Park Conservancy is partnering with the Quivira Coalition and the City of Santa Fe on this three-year project to rebuild soil nutrients and structure, and restore the health of the Blue Grama grasses and other native plantings in the Railyard Park.
Learn more here and here. Read/watch KOB Channel 4’s coverage of Graze Days here.
Amanita Thorp, the daughter of Santa Fe Farmer’s Market vendor Becky Thorp (SunStar Herbs), will bring her business, Horned Locust Goatscaping, as a part of the Graze Days project kickoff on Saturday, April 27 from 12-4pm in the Railyard Park. Come visit after you do your Market shopping and observe the intricacies of the animals working while local ranchers and conservation volunteers educate visitors and answer questions. Amanita and her team will manage the flock for the day as well as throughout the multi-year project.
Mobile solar-powered fences will be in place to migrate with the flock’s location, targeting specific invasive plant species and problem areas that have developed since the Park’s inception in 2008. The native grasslands are a core feature of the drought-tolerant landscape design that also benefits the native insects and birds. The goal will be to holistically restore the one-acre area of the park’s Blue Grama grassland in need of specialized care, while helping to engage and educate the community on the importance of utilizing livestock as an effective tool for land management.
“Part of the motivation for this project was to also be a catalyst for positive interface between people and animals, and foster the respect and admiration needed to be positive stewards, especially in our children.” – Christy Downs, Conservancy Executive Director
There are many benefits to goatscaping, including improvements to soil health, carbon sequestration, fewer rodents, revitalized native brush, and decreased pollen allergies. From Amanita’s blog:
The goats arrive on the job at hand and quickly go to work mowing the overgrown, over abundant and over balanced weeds. Their mouths make quick work of sun-kissed, sugar-filled tips and devour the tougher stalks.
Together, making all the difference.
Their small sharp hooves create divets in the soil where rain water and seeds are caught and sheltered. The topcrust is opened, improving water infiltration. Manure and urine, the building blocks of life, are deposited providing food-energy for symbiotic desert plants. And carbon in the form of old plant material is deposited into the top strata where it is sequestered and helps grow microbial communities.
Each visit from the goats improves the soil, creating balance, establishing communities of symbiotic plants which out-shoulder the opportunistic plants that even without the ties to mycelium networks can take over in degraded/droughty/damaged lands.
Plants and Animals evolved together and without the one the other is lost. As domesticity was thought to civilize the land a new frontier has emerged within the soil.
Chemical warfare became the fashion, (on all fronts) but the war is now exploding, threatening without hope as imbalance and indiscriminate death become the way. Time to step back and re evaluate the equation.
Step back to see that spiral as it currently is, downward. Changing perspectives are needed to see the potential for powerful renewal and rebirth. The spiral that curves upwards and into a fruitful future. The spiral that begins with a choice from each of us to do least harm and supply the most support.”
