Cashmere goats arrive to eat noxious weeds
by Jane Stebbins | Summit Daily News | July 7, 2001
OLD DILLON RESERVOIR -Five hundred cashmere goats will call the Dillon Recreation Area their home for the next two weeks as they graze on noxious weeds encroaching on the wet-lands.
The brown, white, gray and black goats arrived early Friday morning, ready to get to work after a 12-hour fast. There is plenty to feast upon. At the Old Dillon Reservoir alone, halfway between Frisco and Dillon on the Dam Road, there are scores of noxious weed species just about to bloom.
Lani Lamming, who owns the goats, said the ruminants will primarily feed on Canada and musk thistle, two species of noxious weeds that are slowly choking out the native western yarrow, purple aster -even Colorado’s own thistle.
“Noxious weeds can be very beautiful,” said Paul Schreiner, the county’s noxious weed program coordinator. “People see them in the wilderness, think they’re wildflowers and plant them at their home.
If we can break the life cycle before they go to seed, we’ve won for that year.”
