Introducing City Grazing and Rebar-The Goat
City Goats climb, chew and entertain.
Along Cargo Way in southeastern San Francisco, a herd of 80 goats lives on a 10-acre site ringed by the SF Bay Railroad and a cement recycling plant.
City Grazing, the local “rent-a-goat” service, introduces an alternative to weed control and land restoration. Currently, the goat herd is outgrowing its existing shelter, which consists of a series of shipping containers and feed structures.
To accommodate herd growth, improve living conditions for the animals, and to make caring for them easier for their human guardians, Rebar has developed an economical solution that simultaneously references the shelter’s industrial location and uses a variety of repurposed, prefabricated materials. This efficient, low-impact accommodation will serve this herd of urban goats for many generations to come.
Proposed Shelter design includes re-purposed shipping container, K-rail highway separators and W-rail highway guardrails.
On Earth Day weekend SFBR welcomed the new members into the herd and hosted a “Goat Naming” party. Few city goat representatives were sent to graze and entertain at Heron’s Head Park EcoCenter opening, where they got plenty of love from the visitors. All black with a white stripe, one goat in particular was destined to represent the Rebar studio across the great goat-trodden lands of San Francisco.
Young Rebar is looking foward to new shelter and an abundance of sites to graze, plus plenty of play time with his buddies: Madonna, Lady Gaga, Spike, Frisco, Fudge, Noodle, Poopsie , Marshmallow and Columbo. If you see him out and about in the city, be sure to say hi.
For more pictures go to our Flickr Set.
All black with a white stripe this baby goat was destined to be Rebar's new mascot.
David Gavrich talks about his herd.
Rebar is grazing at Heron's Head Park.
Young fans get the goats back home at the end of the day.
Dear Ms. Masha – That Rebar is the most adorable little kid I’ve ever seen, and that gal holding Rebar is pretty adorable too! Great photos and great blog.
Thanks for the memories……..Harry
Harry "Rebar" Jones
28 Apr 10 at 11:52 am
Dear Rebar,
I love the your projects, but I feel like I need to comment on the use of goats for doing land clearing. I am an avid environmentalist, and terribly concerned about loss of habitat
and its effect on birds and other creatures. As someone who
has documented restoration projects I have seen firsthand
what the use of goats has done to some of the land where they
have been to clear land. First of all the goats don’t discriminate
between native and non-native plants, so any tender specimens
are vulnerable to grazing. Goats also spread the seeds of non=native plants beyond where they might have more contained, but most importantly, far too many times they are left too long on a piece of land, often grazing close to bare earth. This leaves the land more vulnerable to the spread of invasive non-natives. I have seen this happen on the Corner of Claremont and Grizzly Peak in the East Bay on EBMUD land,
and in Sea Ranch in Mendocino, each site being invaded by thistle where before it was just grasssland.
How they could work is if the native’s were watched over and the goats moved after a day, but that isn’t how it is done.
And why are native plants important? We have five percent of the habitat that once used to provide shelter and food for birds and other creatures. Birds need bugs to survive, especially to feed their young. Most insects have not lived long enough in tandem with non-native plants long enough to develop the anti-bodies to their toxins, so they can’t eat them.
Read Bringing Nature Home by Douglas Tallamy, or listen to this: http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200905225
You will get the importance of preserving and restoring hab-tats and see why any loss, even that grazed by those cute little goats, is a sad one.
Please don’t consider this a note from a grumpy, radical nay-sayer. I can appreciate all the goodwill those goats are creating, I just wish it were a goat farm and they were making cheese, not being held up as the perfect answer to everyone’s need to clear land.
Thank you for “listening”
Sharon Beals
sharon beals
26 Aug 10 at 5:18 am