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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Goats will help clear Knoch Knolls Park beginning Sept. 24

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Have you heard? A herd of 45 goats will clear weeds for expanded Disc Golf Course at Knoch Knolls Park.

goats

The Naperville Park District soon will welcome a group of eco-friendly grazers who can attack invasive shrubs and even poison ivy efficiently and naturally while feasting to their hearts’ content. Beginning Tuesday, Sept. 24, a goats from Kim Hunter’s Green Goats in Wisconsin will make their home at Knoch Knolls Park for four weeks, preparing the site for next year’s park improvements.

“The goats happily eat our unwanted plants,” said Project Manager Peggy Pelkonen. “There are some areas at Knoch Knolls Park that are thick with invasive species and would take a lot of man power and machinery to clear. This is a natural way to control invasive species in woodlands with less pollution.”

The goats will graze within a five-acre area north of the West Branch of the DuPage River and west of the existing parking lot at Knoch Knolls Park, located at 336 Knoch Knolls Road in Naperville.

Park visitors may enjoy watching the goats, but may not touch the electric fence or the goats. The goats may have poison ivy on their fur and although it does not bother them, it can easily be transmitted to humans who touch them.

Clearing the five-acre area of buckthorn, poison ivy, cherry and other invasives will prepare the area for the expansion of the existing 9-hole disc golf course to an 18-hole course next spring.

This project is part of the overall park improvements and construction of the District’s first nature center at Knoch Knolls Park. The project is progressing as scheduled, with the anticipated opening of the Knoch Knolls Nature Center in early fall 2014.

For more information about the Knoch Knolls Nature Center or about the Naperville Park District and its facilities and programs, visit www.napervilleparks.org.

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Naperville Park District
Naperville Park Districthttp://www.napervilleparks.org/
Created in 1966, the Naperville Park District is an independent, municipal agency serving the recreation needs of its residents. An Illinois Distinguished Agency since 1994, the District is one of only 1% of park districts across the country to be nationally accredited through the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA). The Naperville Park District’s mission is to provide recreation and park experiences that promote healthy lives, healthy minds and a healthy community. The District maintains and operates more than 2,400 acres with 137 parks and provides more than 1,500 recreational, arts and environmental programs and special events annually. Included within the District’s operations are two championship golf courses, a multitude of playgrounds, trails, athletic courts and sports fields, Fort Hill Activity Center, Knoch Knolls Nature Center, two inline skating and skateboarding facilities, the Millennium Carillon, a paddle boat quarry, historic Centennial Beach, and the beautiful Riverwalk.

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