Baa-tany Project in effect on the Roan Balds

[Tennessee Viking]

If anyone is heading to the Roan Highland Balds any time soon. You might meet some of the hardest working maintenance volunteers along the trail. They can eat while they work. No...its not the famous Konnarock Crews. Even though they are working down on the Humps & Stan Murray this year. Its about 40 Angora Goats.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEgaGXCpqMI


Tuesday July 1st - Volunteers from Tennessee Eastman Hiking & Canoeing Club, Old Timers Club, Friends of Roan Mountain, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy, ATC, Park Service, and other organizations led a group of Angora Goats up to the northside of Jane Bald to perform some grazing maintenance of the balds.

While on the balds, the goats will be feasting on the grasses and berry bushes to help keep the balds open. This project has been done once before in the early 1990s, and is being re-examined this year. They will be grazing the balds into the fall season.

Volunteers will be camping up there to inform the public about the goat project. You can even adobt a goat. Additional volunteers are being sought to help camp with the goats on the weekends.

The goats are fenced in between Jane Bald and the Grassy Ridge split. Feel free to visit. Be aware that the goats are confined by an electric fence. And dogs should be leashed and handled by owners when travelling from Carvers Gap to Grassy Ridge.

[Tennessee Viking]

The Baa-tany Project program is now ending for the season. The goats were moved off of Jane Bald on the Roan Highlands today back to their home in Johnson County. A mulit-organizational committee (ATC, Forest Service, Southern Appalachian Highlands Conserancy, Friends of Roan, TEHCC, and other groups) will be calculating and researching on how successful it was.

The goats ate to their hearts content of all the berry bushes and greenery on top on Roan in order to hold back the overgrowing vegetation of Roan Mtn. In other words, biological lawn mowers.

[Jeff]

Last week there was a large, tent like structure near the "donation" mailbox. What was that for?

[Tennessee Viking]

If you are talking about the structure on the TN side, that was the goats weather shelter. There was another tarp set up next to the mailbox for the goats' caretaker that camped with them.

As you can see in the attachment, the goats did a lot of work...eating.