Meet The New Grounds Clean Up Crew For The Kalamazoo Growlers
The City of Kalamazoo has enlisted a heard of sheep to clean up the grounds for Homer Stryker Field and says this crew will be helping at area city parks this summer.
Your eyes do not deceive you. That is a heard of sheep at the home of the Kalamazoo Growlers and Mac Daddies baseball teams. Tending Tilth LLC has been in business for three years clearing small residential areas as well as expansive farmland. This is the first time they partnered with the City of Kalamazoo to help clean up the grounds at Homer Stryker Field and they will be helping the city with some area city parks this summer. Using sheep for this job isn't just plain fun, there are lots of reasons using this crew makes since.
Sheep are much quieter than goats and less likely to climb up to areas they should not. Sheep are very eco-friendly; no exhaust from an engine, no chemicals needed, sheep's hooves aerate the ground as they walk around, they can easily navigate difficult and dangerous terrain/ inclines, and sheep will munch all day on poisonous plants such as poison ivy without any of the side effects that would plague a human work crew.
Lauren Burns & her business partner Jeff Buckham, owners of Tending Tilth LLC, say the results are long-lasting. Once the sheep eat the poisonous or unwanted plants to the ground, the plants do not come back. There is nothing above ground to feed what is left below. Results you won't get by trying to pull a plant from the ground by the roots, which they say will only cause the plant to spread. Need further proof? Check out the before and after below.