A herd of goats has been busy removing the invasive plant known as buckthorn from Barsness park.  The goats are well-known for their voracious appetite for buckthorn and can eat it in hillsides and ravines where it’s difficult for volunteers to reach with pullers or equipment.  This is the second summer the goats were employed by the Barsness Buckthorn Brigade and the City of Glenwood to help remove and/or keep buckthorn in check in the Glenwood park.  The goats were rented from Bryan Simon of Lakeside Prairie Farm, LLC of Barrett, Minn.  The goats were brought into the park in May and stayed through the first week of November.  There were about 25 to 30 goats and the Buckthorn Brigade volunteers placed and monitored a number of areas in the park this summer for the goats to do their thing and eat the leaves of buckthorn.  The constant grazing eventually eliminates the plant. Simon supplied the fencing and the chargers and the volunteers did the rest.  It cost about $21,000  to rent the goats this summer with two-thirds of that cost being funded by donations to the Barsness Park Buckthorn Brigade and a third paid for by the City of Glenwood.   Volunteers spent five to six hours moving fencing last Monday and then worked again later in the week to remove the fencing and load the goat herd for their return trip to their Barrett farm.