[Transcript of, "Goats are grazing at Sar-Ko-Par Trails in Lenexa", produced by City of Lenexa Communications Department]

Margaret Chamas, Storm Dancer Farm LLC, Goats on the Go KCMO: They're in buffet mode — they're seeing everything on the menu before they decide what to eat and so they might just move because they're like well this is good but what else is there.  

Ted Semadeni, Stormwater Superintendent, City of Lenexa: You know we have an invasive vegetation problem in the City of Lenexa. Our goats are here eating up all the invasive vegetation that we have growing in this streamway and riparian zone. 
So invasive plants in a riparian zone can be harmful because they will choke out the native vegetation they will have shallow root systems which makes the soil more easily eroded when we have big rains so native vegetation will hold that soil with its  
deep roots the biggest one that we deal with is a bush honeysuckle that will actually kill other plants that's around it we also have like wild grape which can climb a tree and choke it out and kill a tree which will then fall in the creek 
causing flooding so there's a lot of reasons why we like to have native vegetation and get rid of that invasive vegetation in our stream ways. 

Justin Stuedemann, Stormwater Specialist, City of Lenexa: We chose Sar-Ko-Par because it was a highly-visible area it's in the park we have it's a highly foot trafficked area where people could see and engage with the goats not so much 
engaging in petting and feeding but looking at the goats and and ask themselves what's going on so they can engage uh with the education component.

Margaret Chamas: Other spots along this park,there are rocks, there are areas that you cannot get with a mower and it would be dangerous or inconvenient or unpleasant to send a guy with a weed eater and the goats think that's great to 
them it's more like a jungle gym so they happily deal with terrain that we wouldn't like when they're eating invasive species their digestive systems are strong enough that it will neutralize any seeds they ingest so they will digest every bit of that seed that goes through their systems 
and so they don't spread these species any further.

Ted Semadeni: In your home, usually most people don't have a lot of invasive but it's good to remove them pull them out of the ground if you can if you don't want to use herbicides that's fine but pull them out of the ground dispose of them in the 
trash so that seeds don't spread everywhere else. If you put them in a compost pile, if you use your compost, you're just going to end up replanting the same invasive vegetation.


Margaret Chamas: The whole park we're doing we're doing a corridor all in all it's about 2.5 acres so I'm guessing they're going to be here you know two to three weeks. They're big kids, they can take care of themselves. 
People usually ask me about predators — am I worried about predators. Generally, no. There are 40 goats in here 50-60 pounds minimum, with horns. It's not an easy meal so I know a lot of people have concern  
for the for about predators I really don't worry about it we have never had a coyote attack goats on a project, um, it's just not an easy enough meal they're surrounded by this electric fence so the fence is as much for them staying in as 
for other stuff staying out so it's it's a very tested system and we wouldn't bring them here if we didn't feel secure about the project site.

Ted Semadeni: One of our our biggest pollutant in our surface waters in Lenexa is litter our crews go out and we pick up trash every month out of our stormwater best management practices we also clean those 22 miles of streams once a year 
and typically we pick up over 500 bags of trash out of our streams every year so if people would stop littering that would probably be the best thing and the easiest thing that everybody can do aside from that you know just not dumping things down storm drains. 
Everything you dump in a storm drain, whether it be leaves, grass clippings, paint, chemicals, it's all going to end up in our streams so if you just don't dump stuff in the road, don't throw it on the ground, it'll keep it out of our water.

Margaret Chamas: The biggest thing is please look but do not touch. I welcome people to see the goats, enjoy the goats and the process but please don't handle them don't feed them just just watch and enjoy. These guys have been around enough people that 
they're not overly spooky they're not going to bolt away from you but please just be quiet and respectful please keep your dogs on a leash. Again, they're not terrified of dogs but many dogs even the friendly ones just want to play that will scare the goats the dogs can 
don't tend to respect the fence as well as coyotes so please keep keep everybody on the outside of the perimeter fence.

I will be coming back um for the spinach festival and we'll have I'll be bringing some of my bottle babies super friendly baby goats that love to be pet and cuddled and played with and I'm always well you know I'm always happy to have folks come up to my farm if they want  
to get a closer look at the goats or work with them or see what it's like to do chores. While the goats are here working, please just let them work.

[City of Lenexa logo and text "Lenexa.com/HealthyStreams]

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