Pedestrians and bicyclists along the Colorado Riverfront Trail in Grand Junction may have noticed something out of the ordinary this spring. In some fenced-off sections near Blue Heron Lake, 700 goats are grazing on an array of invasive species such as tamarisk, Russian olive, kochia, and Russian knapweed.
Grand Junction is using goats to combat noxious weeds to make more room for native plants like cottonwood trees and willows. At the same time, they are lowering the risk of wildfire in this hot, dry, high-desert landscape by reducing the vegetative fuel load.
“It can be hard to stop a fire where there’s lots of vegetation,” said Rob Davis, Grand Junction forester and open space supervisor. “If it gets going on a windy day, and there’s lots of downed debris …with 9 inches of precipitation a year, and high summer temperatures, the fire risk is high. Using goats for grazing is an environmentally-friendly strategy to help us reduce fire risks and knock down some of our invasive weeds.”
Plus, people out recreating enjoy seeing the goats, Davis added.
“There’s that added benefit that people just like it,” he said.
A goatherder watches over the goats and nudges them down the trail after they’ve sufficiently grazed a patch of dead or unwanted vegetation. Goats will typically leave the mature cottonwoods and willows alone. However, the city sometimes places a fence around young trees to keep the goats from munching on the saplings.
On the Front Range in Boulder County, the town of Superior has brought in a herd of 300 goats to graze on its open spaces for both weed control and fire mitigation. The catastrophic Marshall Fire in 2021 destroyed more than 1,000 homes in the region.
Superior first began using goats in 2019, as a sustainable method for vegetation management. After the Marshall Fire the town “doubled down” on using goats for fire mitigation, said Leslie Clark, director of Superior’s parks, recreation and open space.
Superior evaluates its open space properties annually to prioritize where to graze the goats each summer and winter, Clark said. Properties are monitored to gauge results before and after grazing.
“Initial results look positive,” Clark said. “People like the results. The goats reduce the vegetative fuel that contributes to wildfire risk. The goats leave the area looking natural. The city later reseeds the areas with native species to improve biodiversity and reduce the number of noxious weeds.”
Using goats for weed control and fire mitigation is not new. Lani Malmberg, owner of Colorado-based Goat Green, said she was the first company to offer this type of fire mitigation work 25 years ago. She and her goats have been featured in The New York Times, the L.A. Times, and other national publications. She now runs her Goat Green grazing business with her son Donny Benz and his fiancée.
Malmberg, 68, said she conceived the idea of using goats decades ago while studying botany, biology and environmental restoration at then-Mesa State College in Grand Junction. She said she watched how knapweed took over a cornfield while working a summer job in Colorado.
It occurred to her then, “Someone ought to run a business to eat the problem,” Malmberg recalled. “Now there are a lot of goat businesses” — and she has trained people at some of them.
Lockheed Martin uses 1,200 of Malmberg’s goats for fire mitigation at its facility in Littleton. Goat Green has done grazing projects for many Colorado cities in the past, including Castle Rock, Colorado Springs, Castle Pines, Broomfield, Golden, Glenwood Springs and Carbondale.
“Over the past 30 years I have worked in all the Western states, doing fire mitigation in California, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, Montana and Nebraska,” Malmberg said.
When asked where her company is based, she replied, “Under my hat — wherever I’m on contract.”
“Fire mitigation is a big deal. Open space (managers) are clamoring to get goats. People are jumping into it. It’s an alternative to machinery and chemicals.”
Superior pays for the goat service via grants from FEMA and Boulder County, with matching grants provided by the town of Superior. The program is funded from 2025 through 2027.
Louisville has used goats to control noxious weeds for several years, said Nathaniel Goeckner, the city’s natural resource supervisor. Louisville contracts with Goats on the Go, in Boulder County, to graze 200 goats on open space around Louisville. Depending on the vegetation, the city also uses cattle for fire mitigation work, Goeckner said. Its grazing program is paid for with grants from Boulder County and a city sales tax.
Longmont also uses goats — though not for fire mitigation, said Jim Krick, ecosystem manager for Longmont’s Parks and Natural Resources. The city has brought in goats since 2023 for weed control — targeting kochia in particular, where it competes with native plants. The goats are brought in just before the weeds form and spread their seeds, Krick said. Longmont typically grazes goats on an acre per year based on its budget.
Grand Junction contracts with Ecological Grazing Service, owned by Jennifer Studt, who, along with her husband, raises goats and sheep on a ranch in nearby Loma. She hires a goatherder who stays with the goats the entire time, moving his small camper, and the goats, down the trail when an area is sufficiently grazed.
Studt says goats do particularly well here because they have a more resilient stomach. They can eat poisonous plants like Russian knapweed, which is highly toxic to most animals — but not goats, she said. And, whereas Russian olive seeds pass through other animals’ dung, which then gets repopulated elsewhere, in a goat’s gut the seed won’t survive, Studt said. Therefore, goats don’t spread noxious weeds.
Studt’s goats began grazing along the riverfront May 23 and will finish eating their way along the trail by the end of this month. They’ll return in late October, when other annual weeds begin to germinate.
“There are bucket loads of dead noxious weeds here,” Studt said. “And while goats will eat live plants too, they really like the crunchy, dead material — a lot of other animals not so much. Goats like a lot of roughage in their diet. We’re taking something noxious, poisonous to other animals and turn it into fertilizer which helps overall soil health — which helps the native plants come back.”
Using goats to reduce fuel loads, and invasive plant species is a more environmentally friendly method than using chemicals, Davis said. The Grand Junction program is funded through the city’s operating budget.
Although using goats doesn’t necessarily eliminate the use of herbicides, it reduces the amount of chemicals used in grazing areas, said Grand Junction spokesperson Kelsey Coleman in an email to Colorado Newsline.
The town of Superior contracts with Goat Bros, which Clark said offers educational days when the public can meet the goats close up, and learn how goats improve the environment.
“It’s an opportunity to get closer to the goats,” Clark said. “We don’t want people interacting with them, otherwise — they’re working.”
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