Chattanooga considers using goats to fight kudzu
“We’re trying to get a handle on the kudzu without using chemicals or other stuff,” said Lee Norris, deputy director of Public Works. “We know some communities have had success with goats grazing on the kudzu, and we’re thinking about this as a test project.”
Kudzu, a vine native to Japan and China introduced to the U.S. in the late 1800s as a forage crop and ornamental plant, can grow up to a foot a day. Cities, especially in the Southeast where the weed thrives, have spent millions of dollars trying to curb it.
Surveyors in Chattanooga have measured landscape on the west side of Missionary Ridge over the McCallie Avenue tunnel as a potential site for goats to graze on the invasive weed.
Norris said the city uses weed killer and other chemicals to try to curb the kudzu, which grows in the spring and summer.
“But that does nothing about getting rid of it,” Norris said. “The goats will keep eating and keep eating until you get it down to a controllable state, and then you’ll see native vegetation starting to grow back.”
Norris said a herd of 100 goats would cost the city about $30,000 a year and could clear five acres of kudzu in a year. He said goats have been used by other cities to control kudzu growth.