Poison Ivy-Eating Goats to Defend Historic New Jersey Fort

Eleven Nubian goats from upstate New York are the first line of defense to save New Jersey's historic Fort Hancock from a poison ivy invasion.

 

The plants have overtaken the Sandy Hook mortar battery that defended New York Harbor during World War II.

 

Park Ranger Tom Hoffman tells the Asbury Park Press the six-acre site should have been named "Poison Ivy National Monument."

 

The Sandy Hook Foundation is paying Larry Cihanek of Rhinebeck, N.Y., about $12,000 to use about two dozen goats to clear the site to make it more accessible to the public.

 

Cihanek says it's the densest concentration of poison ivy that he's ever seen.