3. The Green Goats of Rhinebeck temporarily lived in Stuyvesant Cove Park
Stuyvesant Cove Park became a community-oriented green space at the end of the 20th century when New York City developers failed to create a Riverwalk that would destroy the park. Now, the park, which sits next to the new Stuyvesant Town ferry station that opened in 2018, is home to more than 100 plant and animal species. Native birds, including Gray Catbirds, Double-Crested Cormorants, and Red-Tailed Hawks have been spotted from the park. For a brief period of time, goats were also residents of the park.
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the natural equilibrium of vegetative growth maintained by the park’s volunteers was disrupted. The park manager called in the Green Goats of Rhinebeck, a group of goats who eat invasive plants and poop them out as fertilizer, to re-establish the equilibrium. These goats have eliminated invasive plants in hundreds of city, state, and national parks in the Northeast since the inception of their group in 2007.