On Tuesday, Sept. 24, 45 goats arrived in Naperville’s Knoch Knolls Park to be used by the Park District for maintaining the park’s  environment.

The goats were hired from a Wisconsin farm called Green Goats and will be staying in Naperville during the week of Oct. 21. The exact day they will leave has not yet been determined, according to Peggy Pelkonen, Naperville Park District project manager.

Pelkonen decided to hire the goats after reading about Chicago O’Hare International Airport’s use of goats to keep their land free of unwanted vegetation.

“[Knoch Knolls] is over 230 acres,” Pelkonen said. “There are natural areas that we have not been able to maintain properly, so we chose some of those areas [to put the goats in].”

Previously, the park vegetation was not managed and invading species had taken over.

“It was a perfect fit for [the goats] to come and eat the…poison ivy, thorns and honeysuckle,” Pelkonen said.

The goats are kept in their area by a portable electric fence and stay in the park every day. However, they have been eating rapidly and may soon be moved to a new area.

“They’ve cleared three acres,” Pelkonen said. “We’re moving them from the area they were initially in to another overgrown area because they’re eating so fast.”

This is the first time the Park District has used goats. If this trial at Knock Knolls goes well, the Park District hopes to expand the use of goats into other parks.

With the new areas the goats are ridding of unwanted vegetation, the Park District wants to expand the frisbee-golf course at Knoch Knolls. Pelkonen hopes to make the current nine-hole course an 18-hole course.