Photo By Claudia Neve | A goat feasts in a fenced-off area at Fort McCoy, Wis., as part of an effort to curb...... read more read more
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STORY BY CLAUDIA NEVE AND SCOTT T. STURKOL
With October comes Energy Action Month, and one way Fort McCoy is “taking action” in saving energy is by using goats. That’s right — goats.
More than 100 goats are being used combat invasive plant species at Fort McCoy, and they are very effective, said Wildlife Biologist Kevin Luepke with the Fort McCoy Directorate of Public Works Environmental Division Natural Resources Branch.
“It will help us save labor/equipment time, reduce costs, reduce pesticide usage, and hopefully give us better results,” Luepke said. “The goats will be used in an integrated approach. I see our approach looking like this in the future — shred and mulch the invasive brush during the winter or fall, then allow the invasive brush to resprout the following growing season, introduce goats to the site during that same growing season to defoliate, and then treat with herbicides the following growing season after that.
“This will put a stressor on the invasive shrubs multiple times,” Luepke said. “In essence this will make the herbicide treatments more effective because we will be dealing with already stressed plants.”
Finding new solutions to “take action” is what Energy Action Month is all about, officials said. According to the Federal Energy Management Program at www.energy.gov, October commences National Clean Energy Action Month, which is “a celebratory time in which the federal government is ‘Taking Action’ by providing leadership in energy management and federal facility optimization, energy resilience and security, and the use of distributed energy and energy procurement.”
The website also states, “Agencies are making tremendous progress by implementing energy- and water-management projects throughout the federal government. Whether these projects are implemented campus-wide or in individual facilities, every action taken to achieve, lead, and innovate by hard-working federal employees contributes toward strengthening the security and resilience of our federal infrastructure.”
At Fort McCoy, the idea to have goats be a part of the invasive species management plan partly came out of the installation’s participation in the Monroe County (Wis.) Invasive Species Working Group.
“Being part of that group really allows us to collaborate, see what’s working for each other, and able to implement those approaches into our daily work,” Luepke said. “So, yes, we did have a field day here back in June, and we were able to showcase some goats grazing out at that field day. It really kind of opened our eyes.
“We knew we were losing ground on these invasive shrubs,” Luepke said. “So, this is going to hopefully allow us to get ahead of that curve, … allowing us another opportunity to put stressors on these plants. … Now we can integrate goats which will free up man hours for us to also work in other areas.”
While the goats will continue to help control the invasive brush at Fort McCoy, federal employees can also do their part within their organizations. Learn more about “taking action” by visiting the Federal Energy Management Program page for National Energy Action Month at https://www.energy.gov/femp/national-clean-energy-action-month.
Fort McCoy was established in 1909 and its motto is to be the “Total Force Training Center.” Located in the heart of the upper Midwest, Fort McCoy is the only U.S. Army installation in Wisconsin.
The installation has provided support and facilities for the field and classroom training of more than 100,000 military personnel from all services nearly every year since 1984.
Learn more about Fort McCoy online at https://home.army.mil/mccoy, on the Defense Visual Information Distribution System at https://www.dvidshub.net/fmpao, on Facebook by searching “ftmccoy,” and on Twitter by searching “usagmccoy.”
Also try downloading the Digital Garrison app to your smartphone and set “Fort McCoy” or another installation as your preferred base.
| Date Taken: | 10.03.2023 |
| Date Posted: | 10.03.2023 18:03 |
| Story ID: | 455072 |
| Location: | FORT MCCOY, WISCONSIN, US |
| Web Views: | 572 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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