Goats return to Dix Park to clear invasive plants and trees

Goats were back on the hills at Dix Park, chewing through invasive plants and young trees along a hard-to-reach stretch of the Rocky Branch Greenway Trail while visitors looked on from a safe distance. The herd, including Bernie and Pastrami, worked a steep, rocky section that Raleigh Parks said crews struggle to manage with mowers alone.

The city brought in the animals because the slope is too rough for standard equipment and too expensive to clear with heavy crews. Raleigh Parks said goats can reach places mowers cannot, making them a practical tool in the park’s wider invasive species work. Officials also warned visitors not to pet the animals while they were on the job.

The scene fit Dix Park’s broader transformation. The 308-acre site is a former hospital campus now being reshaped under a master plan adopted by Raleigh City Council in 2019 after a 2017 planning process that drew input from more than 65,000 area residents. Rocky Branch, the creek corridor where the goat work is happening, is listed by Dix Park as an impaired stream and a top planning priority because the restored area is meant to tie the park more closely to Downtown Raleigh, NC State University, Pullen Park and the North Carolina Museum of Art.

The goat work also gave Raleigh Parks a public-facing way to show what invasive species management looks like in practice. Invasive plants spread quickly, crowd out native species, limit food and shelter for wildlife, and can make trails unsafe or hard to use. The city’s Invasive Species Program was created to manage infestations, prevent new introductions and provide educational opportunities, and Raleigh Parks said the program received $500,000 in 2024 for a Master Services Agreement that is helping expand that work across the city.

That expansion is not small. By the end of fiscal 2026, Raleigh Parks said the invasive-species effort will have supported projects at 28 parks and greenway locations and restored more than 90 acres of land. A similar Dix Park goat project in 2025 used 32 goats rented from a local company to clear more than an acre in 10 days, with the herd tracked by GPS collars and contained by a low-voltage solar-powered electric fence and a second barrier so people could watch without getting too close.

At Dix Park, the goats have become part maintenance crew, part living exhibit. For now, they are clearing the brush that hides the Rocky Branch corridor, and when the work is done, park leaders want the public to notice a cleaner trail, healthier native habitat and a safer path through one of Raleigh’s most visible restoration zones.