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Herd Around Town: Trust for Gov­er­nors Island Announces New Sheep Employees

Apr 19, 2021 12:03 pm

NEW YORK (April 19, 2021)–Today, the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island offi­cial­ly intro­duced its five newest employ­ees to New York City — a fam­i­ly of five sheep. These fluffy friends — Flour, Sam, Evening, Chad, and Philip Aries — hail from Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm in Albany and will spend the next four to five months on Gov­er­nors Island, help­ing to con­trol inva­sive plant species in beau­ti­ful Ham­mock Grove by eat­ing them. 

Sheep’s love for herba­ceous plants, such as grass­es, phrag­mites and flow­er­ing plants like mug­wort and sun­flow­ers make them a nat­ur­al fit to join the Island’s hor­ti­cul­tur­al divi­sion. Replete with such del­i­ca­cies (phrag­mites being the sheep’s favorite), the flock will live on the Island, enjoy­ing a lush grove and eat­ing its inva­sive plants all sum­mer long. 

“The shear genius of this idea lies in its sim­plic­i­ty. On behalf of the thou­sands of New York­ers flock­ing to open space on Gov­er­nors Island every sea­son, I want to thank Flour, Sam, Evening, Chad, and Philip Aries for doing their part to bring New York City baaaack,” said May­or Bill de Bla­sio . ​“Bön appetit, fellas.” 

“The sheep are very hap­py to be join­ing us on Gov­er­nors Island for the sum­mer, and we are thrilled to have them here,” said Clare New­man, Pres­i­dent & CEO of the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island . ​“This inno­v­a­tive, envi­ron­men­tal­ly friend­ly land­scap­ing pro­gram will pro­tect our Island’s plant life from inva­sive species while allow­ing our hor­ti­cul­ture team to spend their time on more pro­duc­tive pur­suits than weed­ing Ham­mock Grove. Our new sheep employ­ees have arrived at the per­fect time, and we wel­come their con­tri­bu­tions to help pro­tect the nat­ur­al land­scapes of Gov­er­nors Island.” 

“Using ani­mals for veg­e­ta­tion man­age­ment has many ben­e­fits — not only does it help reduce the vital­i­ty and spread of the plants, but it reduces the need for harm­ful her­bi­cides. The sheep also help return nutri­ents and car­bon back into the soil, cre­at­ing a health­i­er ecosys­tem for both native flo­ra and fau­na and park-goers. We are thrilled to expand our graz­ing efforts to Gov­er­nors Island and wel­come vis­i­tors to meet the rest of the flock and com­mu­ni­ty which will con­tin­ue man­ag­ing veg­e­ta­tion in Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and host­ing envi­ron­men­tal edu­ca­tion activ­i­ties all sum­mer long,” said Kim Tateo, Exec­u­tive Direc­tor and Farm Man­ag­er, Friends of Tivoli Lake Pre­serve and Farm .

Mug­wort, phrag­mites and oth­er inva­sive plant species have a com­pet­i­tive nature and crowd oth­er plant­i­ngs with­in the park, essen­tial­ly cre­at­ing a mono­cul­ture. The sheep eat­ing these herba­ceous plants helps to break down and weak­en them, pre­vent­ing them from flow­er­ing and the seeds spreading. 

Recruit­ing a herd of sheep is extreme­ly ben­e­fi­cial to the Trust for Gov­er­nors Island’s efforts to care for the park, as it reduces the time spent on inva­sive species removal to less than 30 per­cent of the gar­den­ing staff time. Hav­ing the sheep deal with the inva­sive plants allows the hor­ti­cul­ture team to focus more on the well-being of the trees and soil and ensure that the for­est in Ham­mock Grove thrives on Gov­er­nors Island. Pre­vi­ous­ly the hor­ti­cul­ture team was spend­ing a tremen­dous amount of time weed­ing, and the sheep rep­re­sent a cost effec­tive and eco-friend­ly solu­tion that allows the team to be more pro­duc­tive and efficient. 

Sheep are also unique­ly suit­ed to the work on Gov­er­nors Island, more so than goats or oth­er ani­mals, since their culi­nary tastes do not include tree bark. The sheep will eat around the young trees in Ham­mock Grove and focus on phrag­mites and oth­er del­i­ca­cies, while goats would devour vir­tu­al­ly any plant life they could get their hooves on, inva­sive or not. 

As a ges­ture of grat­i­tude to their new home city, the sheep pro­vid­ed vis­i­tors to their wel­come par­ty with a lunch of inva­sive plants and grass­es to all media in attendance.