Not a Baaaad Idea for Cities Looking to Clean Up Land

Along the Cumberland River just north of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, tourists on party pontoons see something a little expected: hundreds of sheep nibbling on grass along the riverbank. The urban sheepherder who manages this flock, Zach Richardson, says sometimes tourist boats will go out of their way to let their passengers get a closer glimpse of the Nashville Chew Crew grazing a few hundred yards away from densely populated residential and commercial buildings. "Everybody that comes out here and experiences the sheep, they enjoy it more than they would someone on a zero-turn mower or a guy with a leaf blower," Richardson says.

Using sheep for prescribed grazing isn't a new landscaping method, but more urban communities are opting for it to handle land management concerns such as invasive species, wildfire risks, protection of native vegetation and animal habitats, and maintaining historic sites, per the AP. Nashville's Parks Department hired the Chew Crew in 2017 to help maintain Fort Negley, a Civil War-era Union fortification that had weeds growing that lawn mowers could easily chip. Sheep now graze about 150 acres of city property annually. It's "a more environmentally sustainable way to care for the green space and oftentimes is cheaper than doing it with handheld equipment and staff," says Jim Hester, assistant director of Metro Nashville Parks.

Not every urban site is ideal. Jennif Chandler owns City Sheep and Goat in Colbert, Georgia, where her sheep graze on mostly residential properties and community projects such as the Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve. In 2015, some of her sheep were attacked and killed by dogs who got through the electric fence in a public park. Those kinds of incidents have been rare, she notes. The sheep need to be moved regularly, as they tire of the same plants. Richardson checks on his flock daily, but he also often receives photos and videos that people take of the sheep, as his phone is listed on the electric fence. "If the sheep can be a catalyst to connect back to nature just for a split second, or spark a kid's imagination to go down to the river and catch a crawdad, I think more of that is good," Richardson says. More here.

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