About 350 goats owned by Tim and Lynda Linquist have been dispatched to the Warm Springs Mesa to eat invasive weeds this week. The project is a joint program between the Warm Springs Mesa Neighborhood Association, City of Boise and the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. The program is being funded by Southwest Idaho Research, Conservation and Development program. May 3, 2012 CHRIS BUTLER
Idaho Statesman Staff
More than 300 goats are grazing the Boise Foothills on the eastern edge of Warm Spring Mesa this week to chomp down on cheatgrass, medusahead, rye grass, Russian olive trees and other plants. They graze 24 hours a day.
“Our rule of thumb is, 100 goats eat an acre a day,” said Tim Linquist of Wilder, owner of We Rent Goats.
He and his wife, Lynda, are busy this spring because it’s prime time for fire-fuel control, with peak grass growth just prior to seeding.
More than 99 percent of the seeds will not germinate once they’ve passed through the goats’ digestive system.
The Lindquists have 140 does and 200 kids on the job.
The family is camping near Warm Spring Mesa to herd and care for the goats. They have the help of a herd dog.
The goats are kept in a large electrified enclosure as they move up the draws around the Mesa.
The Linquists also are working in other neighborhoods near Table Rock and Boise’s North End.
After 10 wildfires in 2011 on undeveloped land surrounding the 440-home subdivision, the Warm Springs Mesa Neighborhood Association teamed up with the city of Boise to reduce wildland fuels.
Through a grant from the Southwest Idaho Resource, Conservation and Development program, the neighborhood had herbicide applied to 78 acres in vulnerable areas outside the subdivision.
Spray wasn’t used in a 100-foot buffer zone between the sprayed area and houses. The goats are grazing on 24 acres in that zone.
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