Riverside Park Goats Return to Delight Kids and Families

The Riverside Park goats are back and ready to work! These summer associates will return on Wednesday to resume their seasonal landscaping positions to help the park look beautiful and well manicured for all who visit.

This is the third year that the Riverside Park Conservancy has hosted the goats as part of its “Goatham” initiative. Now, these fun farm animals won't be using lawn mowers, hedge clippers or anything like that of course. They'll be using tools a little more natural to keep the greenery looking nice—their teeth! They'll snack on invasive and overgrown plants to keep the grounds looking nice (and enjoy a tasty treat while doing it).

Riverside Park’s goats are like a new herd of full-time professional weeding staff. They are able to traverse difficult, hard-to-reach places and can also gulp down poison ivy without a second thought.  This frees up human hands – and significant amounts of time – to work on other components of restoration. 

Riverside Park will host a welcoming reception for the goats called the “Running of the Goats” at 120 Street and Riverside Drive on Wednesday, June 29, at 11am. Get your goat on—the event is free and open to the public!

The guests of honor at the event will be Skittles, Cheech, Big 'G' and Elenor—the four goats staying for the summer. But 16 of their goat friends will attend the party, too, so you'll see lots of adorable running goats. 

“The conservancy looks forward to celebrating the goats’ return at the Running of the Goats,” John Herrold, interim president & CEO of Riverside Park Conservancy, said. “We know how much joy the goats brought parkgoers in 2019 and 2021, and we cannot wait for them to get to work consuming weeds.”