Billy’s goats busy educating public

A WEST Cork goat herder is using his re-purposed male goats to help with clearing an invasive species at a Cork city quarry, while at the same time educating both young and old about coming up with solutions to climate proofing.

Willie Walsh from Enniskeane, who set up ‘Billy’s Rent a Goat’ in 2021, was recently employed by Cork Nature Network (CNN) in collaboration with Cork City Council to use eight of his goats – Schnucki, Nico, Cerebus, Johnny, Willow, Zeus and brothers Mario and Luigi – to help to remove ‘Old Man’s Beard’ from Beaumont Quarry in Ballintemple.

Cork Nature Network decided to test out a new approach to invasive species management at the quarry by bringing in Billy’s goats on a pilot scheme and it seems his eager goats are doing a damn fine job at it so far, with them eating roughly 160  kg of ‘Old Man’s Beard’ during that week. The Old Man’s Beard is an invasive deciduous perennial plant which is native to central and southern Europe. 

Speaking to The Southern Star, Willie, who was employed by Bantry House last summer to help  clear overgrowth, said his work is about using the goats as an intermediary in order to get people to reconnect with nature.

‘I use the goats as an intermediary, which gets people interested then,’ said Willie. ‘They seem to love eating the Old Man’s Beard and it doesn’t harm them.’

With 23 goats in total which he gets in dairy farms, Willie has them spilt into three groups, with one group in training where it takes him a year-and-a-half to train them. One group is resting at home, while another are in Béal na Bláth.

‘I first bring them on a lead at around eight weeks and bottle feed them until 12 weeks old so they are hand-reared,’ he explained. Since The Southern Star first featured Willie’s story, he says the whole dynamic of what he is doing has totally changed.

‘Initially it was geared towards land management, but the whole aspect now is more about education and building awareness and bringing people back out into the environment. With a climate emergency, it’s about getting people to think about solutions and making the transition between fossil fuel and the green economy.’

Willie and his goats are also involved in a five-year project working with Heritage Ireland and Waterford County Council  at the Ardmore Cliff Walk in Co Waterford, where his goats have been clearing gorse, while he has given talks to people there.

‘We were actually trying to uncover the ‘Eire 20’ sign there which showed our neutrality during WWII. It’s an area of special conservation, so I’m trying to improve the bio-diversity of the site.’