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City of Seattle
Gregory J. Nickels, Mayor
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NEWS ADVISORY
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| SUBJECT: Media Advisory: Goats To Munch On Invasive Plants At York Park!
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
4/22/2005 10:56:00 AM |
FOR MORE INFORMATION CONTACT:
Dewey Potter (206) 684-7241
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Media Advisory: Goats To Munch On Invasive
Plants At York Park!
WHAT: Three rescued goats from Goat Busters will munch and lunch on
invasive plants!
WHERE: York Park, 3650 Renton Avenue South
WHEN: Sunday, April 24, 2005, from 9 a.m. through the day.
WHY: To help prepare the site for construction later this spring. Parks
acquired this former City Light substation with Pro Parks Levy funds.
BACKGROUND: Goat Busters (rescuegoats@yahoo.com)
will bring the goats to the park at the request of the York Park Task Force,
an eclectic community support group comprising an architect, a bus driver, a
nurse, a librarian, a craftsperson, a Snoqualmie elder, and a senior marketing
consultant-dilettante-artist-activist of immense dedication but uncertain temper.
The Task Force is a subset of Friends of Goat Hill, a neighborhood group formed
to help create two new parks in what they like to call "Chubby and Tubby
Heights," a narrow strip of land between Martin Luther King, Jr. Way S
and Rainier Avenue S. The group has worked to post signs in seven languages
to convey that the park will be for everyone.
The goats will eat their fill of the Himalayan blackberries and black locust
that have overtaken the site. Mark Mead, Parks Senior Urban Forester, says of
the goats, "They reduce the total amount of vegetation that needs to be
removed by hand, and they engage the community in a very positive way in the
restoration of a park."
The new park will be a place of respite and rest from the hectic pace of life
in the city; it will feature lawn areas, an informal play area, wheelchair-accessible
picnic tables and paths, and new landscaping with native and drought-tolerant
plants.
Funding for the park construction comes from the Pro Parks Levy, the Safeco
Foundation, the Miller Foundation, the Neighborhood Matching Fund, and King
County.
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Seattle Parks and Recreation
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