Cities use sheep to graze urban landscapes and people love it

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Along the Cumberland River north of downtown Nashville, Tenn., partygoers on party pontoons float past the familiar skyline, but they may also see something a little less expected: hundreds of sheep munching on grass – along the river bank.

The urban shepherd who manages this herd, Zach Richardson, said that sometimes the tour boats will go out of their way to let their passengers get a closer look at the Nashville Chew crew grazing within a few hundred yards of densely populated residential and commercial buildings.

The joy people get from watching sheep graze is partly why they become fashionable workers in some urban areas.

“Everybody that comes out here and deals with the sheep, they enjoy it more than someone with a zero-cut mower or a guy with a leaf blower or a grass eater would,” Richardson said.

Using sheep for prescribed grazing is not a new landscaping method, but more urban communities are opting for it to manage land management concerns such as invasive species, fire risks, protection of native vegetation and animal habitats, and maintaining historical sites.

The Nashville Parks Department hired the Chew Crew in 2017 to help maintain Fort Negley, a Civil War-era Union fortification that had weeds growing between and along the rocks that lawnmowers could chip away at ease. The sheep now graze about 150 acres (60.7 hectares) of city property annually, including the historic Nashville City Cemetery.

“It’s a more environmentally sustainable way to take care of green space, and it’s often cheaper than doing it with portable equipment and personnel,” said Jim Hester, assistant director of Metro Nashville Parks.

Living among the sheep – and often mingling – are Chew Crew’s guard dogs, Anatolian Shepherds, who are born and stay with them 24/7 to keep pesky intruders, both two-legged and four-legged, at bay. The flock consists of hair sheep, a type of breed that naturally sheds its hair fibers and is often used for meat.

Another important canine employee is Duggie, the border collie. With just a few whistles and commands from Richardson, Duggie can control the entire herd when it needs to be moved, separated or loaded onto a trailer.

Across the country, another municipality has also become dependent on these hoofed rodents. Santa Barbara, Calif., has been using grazing sheep for about seven years as a way to manage buffer zones that can slow or stop the spread of wildfires.

“The community loves grazers and it’s kind of a great way to engage the community,” said Monique O’Conner, open space planner for the city’s parks and recreation. “It’s kind of a shiny new way of managing land.”

Grassed areas can change how fire moves, said Mark vonTillow, wildland specialist for the Santa Barbara Fire Department.

“So if a fire is coming down the hill and going through a field full of brush and then all of a sudden it hits a grazed area that’s kind of broken vegetation, the fire behavior reacts drastically and falls to the ground,” vonTillow said . “That gives the firefighters a chance to attack the fire.”

Even some universities have tried herds of goats and sheep on campus property. In 2010, the University of Georgia had a problem with privet that was overrunning a section of campus not used by students or staff and pushing out native plants, said Kevin Kirsche, the school’s director of sustainability.

Instead of using chemicals or clippers, Kirsche said they hired Jennif Chandler to send a herd of goats to strip the bark from the privet, trample the roots and defoliate the branches.

“Bringing goats to the site was an alternative means of removing invasive plants in a non-toxic and human-friendly way,” Kirsche said.

Around the same time, Chew Crew owner Richardson, who at the time was a UGA student studying landscape architecture, was inspired to start his own goat herding business. The goats have become the most popular four-legged creatures on campus, he said.

“What was fun and less expected were the kind of side projects and a life of their own that developed around Chew Crew,” Kirsche said. “We had art students taking time-lapse photos, documenting changes over time. At one point we had a student dressed as a goat playing goat songs on the guitar and other students serving goat cheese and goat ice cream.”

Richardson, who moved his company to Nashville after completing his degree, now prefers sheep to goats. Sheep are more herd oriented and not inclined to climb and explore as much as goats.