Lookout Mountain: Goats chew kudzu on Cummings Highway

The goats that gobble kudzu on Missionary Ridge now have a new task — ridding a park on Lookout Mountain of the invasive vine.

Four goats have been stationed at John C. Wilson Park on Cummings Highway to help eradicate kudzu there, according to a new release from Natural Land Clearing, Inc., a Petersburg, Tenn., company that supplied the goats.

The company also provided the goats that eat kudzu on Missionary Ridge.

The Lookout Mountain Conservancy hired the goats to control kudzu and other unwanted vegetation at the park on Cummings Highway, the release stated.

The goats and a Great Pyrenees livestock guardian dog named Goliath started their work at the park on Thursday. The goats will be on the site until Sept. 14, the release stated.

Goats have munched away at kudzu and other hard-to-tackle plants on Missionary Ridge for three years.

They are “a little bit more effective than we initially thought,” Lee Norris, deputy administrator of the Department of Public Works, said last month.

The city is considering expanding the goat program to other kudzu-infested areas in the city, he has said.

Chattanooga’s kudzu-eating goats have garnered attention from media outlets including The New York Times, which in a 2007 article declared that “Chattanooga’s goats have become unofficial city mascots.”