NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Along the Cumberland River, just north of downtown Nashville, Tennessee, tourists on party pontoons float along the recognizable skyline, but they may also see something less expected: hundreds of sheep nibbling the grass along the riverbank.
The urban sheep herder who manages this flock, Zach Richardson, said the tourist boats sometimes go out of their way to give their passengers a glimpse of the area. Nashville Chewing Squad grazing a few hundred meters away from densely populated residential and commercial buildings.
The joy people get from watching sheep graze is part of the reason they become trendy workers in some urban areas.
“Anyone who comes here and experiences the sheep enjoys it more than someone on a zero-turn mower or someone with a leaf blower or a weed eater,” Richardson said.
Using sheep for prescribed grazing is not a new landscaping method, but more and more urban communities are choosing it to address land management issues such as invasive species. risks of wildfiresprotecting native vegetation and animal habitats and preserving historic sites.
Nashville’s parks department hired the Chew Crew in 2017 to help maintain Civil War-era Fort Negley fortification where weeds grew between and along the stones that lawn mowers could easily cut down. Sheep now graze approximately 60.7 acres of city property annually, including at the historic Nashville City Cemetery.
“It’s a more environmentally sustainable way to care for green space and is often cheaper than doing so with portable equipment and personnel,” said Jim Hester, deputy director of Metro Nashville Parks.
Living among the sheep – and often blending in – are the herdsmen of the Chew Crew, Anatolian shepherds, who were born and stay with them 24/7 to keep curious intruders, both the two-legged and four-legged kind, at bay. The flock consists of hair sheep, a type of breed which sheds its hair fibers naturally and is often used for meat.
Another important canine collaborator is Duggie, the border collie. With just a few whistles and commands from Richardson, Duggie can control the entire herd when they need to be moved, separated or loaded onto a trailer.
Another municipality across the country has also become dependent on these hoof nibblers. Santa Barbara, California, has used graze sheep for about seven years as a way to manage land buffers that can slow or stop the spread of wildfires.
“The community loves the grazers and it’s a great way to increase community involvement,” said Monique O’Conner, open space designer for the city’s parks and recreation. “It’s kind of a new, shiny way of land management.”
The grazed areas can change the way fire moves, said Mark von Tillow, the Santa Barbara City Fire Department’s wildland specialist.
“So if a fire comes down the hill and goes through an entire thicket, and then suddenly it hits a grazed area that is some kind of decomposed vegetation, the fire behavior reacts dramatically and it falls to the ground,” vonTillow said. “That gives firefighters the opportunity to fight the fire.”
Even some universities have tried herds of goats and sheep on campus grounds. In 2010, the University of Georgia had a privet problem that overtook a portion of campus not used by students or staff, crowding out native plants, says Kevin Kirsche, the school’s director of sustainability.
Instead of using chemicals or mowers, Kirsche said they hired Jennif Chandler to send a herd of goats to remove the bark from the privet, stomp on the roots and defoliate the branches.
“Bringing the goats to the site was an alternative way to remove invasive plants in a way that was non-toxic to the environment and friendly to humans,” Kirsche said.
Around the same time, Chew Crew owner Richardson, then a UGA student studying landscape architecture, was inspired to create his own goat pasture farm. The goats became the most popular four-legged creatures on campus, he said.
“What was fun and less expected were the side projects and a life of their own that developed around the Chew Crew,” Kirsche said. “We had art students create time-lapse photography, documenting changes over time. At one point we had a student dressed as a goat play goat songs on the guitar and other students served goat cheese and goat ice cream.”
Richardson, who moved his business to Nashville after graduating from college, now prefers sheep to goats. Sheep are more herd-oriented and are not as inclined to climb and explore as goats.
“I’ll never own a goat again,” he admitted. “They look like little Houdinis. It’s like trying to hold back water.”
But according to O’Conner, sheep are not a panacea for all cities and their areas. “We want to educate the public on why we choose to graze where we graze,” she said.
Not every urban location is ideal. Chandler owns it City sheep and goat in Colbert, Georgia, about 12 miles northeast of UGA’s Athens campus, where its sheep graze on mostly residential and community projects like Clyde Shepherd Nature Preserve in North Decatur, just outside Atlanta.
In 2015, some of her sheep were attacked and killed by dogs that broke through the electric fence while in a public park. According to Chandler, these types of incidents are rare.
The sheep need to be moved regularly because they tire of the same plants and moving reduces the chance of a predator attack, Chandler said.
Hundreds of sheep can impact the environment by spreading seeds. The City of Santa Barbara conducts environmental studies before deploying grazers because it can also affect bird habitats and nests.
“Putting around 500 sheep into an area has a much greater impact on the land and those soils than our native herbivores would have,” O’Conner said.
Along the Cumberland River levee, the side of the greenway where the park uses mowers looks neat and tidy like a golf course. On the other side, where the Chew Crew ewes are munching, an ecosystem is thriving.
“There are rabbits, butterflies, marmots, turtles and nesting birds,” Richardson said. “The list goes on. It’s much more diverse. Even though we’ve removed some of the vegetation, there’s still habitat that can support wildlife.”
Richardson checks his flock daily, but he also often receives photos and videos that people take of the sheep because his phone is on the electric fence.
“If the sheep can be a catalyst to reconnect with nature for a split second, or spark a child’s imagination to go to the river and catch a crawdad, then I think more of that would be good is,” Richardson said.