Off the Coral Strip Trail in Coralville, a dozen goats and their kids wander through the trees, tugging at vines and low branches on a sloped patch of prairie remnant. The animals aren’t just there for show — they are the newest tool in the University of Iowa’s push for sustainable land management.
Partnering with former UI educator and Restoration Specialist Tamra Elliott, the UI Office of Sustainability is using the goats to clear invasive plants that choke native growth and threaten the ecology in prairie remnants like those along the Coral Strip Trail.
According to the Iowa Prairie Network, prairie remnants are tiny surviving patches of Iowa’s original prairie, of which less than 0.1 percent remain, and they provide an important habitat for native plants and animals. Restoring them helps protect the soil and its nutrients and maintain
plant communities.
Director of the UI’s Office of Sustainability and the Environment, Stratis Giannakouros, said goats provide a much more sustainable way to restore the landscapes than any common landscaping methods.
“There’s no good way to [remove every invasive plant] effectively with human beings. It’s too labor intensive and expensive to hand pull all that stuff,” Giannakouros said. “It turns out goats are really good at eating the stuff that we don’t want to be there and then creating room for the things we want to grow back.”
Studies from across the Midwest and former prairie region show goats can be a helpful and safe way to control unwanted plants and restore natural areas. At Grinnell College, researchers found goats grazing on invasive shrubs helped reduce their growth without harming the soil. In Missouri, goats were able to eat invasive plants and make room for native grasses to grow.
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Tamra Elliott and her husband, Ryan Elliott, launched their goat-grazing business Go-At It in June 2025 after years of planning. The Elliotts’ herd of about 20 goats, including many retired dairy goats, is being used to restore prairie remnants and manage invasive species in places where mowers and burns aren’t practical.
Each goat has its own personality and “specialty,” Tamra Elliott said.
Some of her goats, like Spot and Anna, are alpine and retired milking goats, so they prefer stripping bark from invasive trees. Others, like Thea, are natural climbers, reaching 12-foot high branches to eat the leaves.
The Elliotts have extensive backgrounds in ecology and land management, as Ryan Elliott works for the National Park Service, and Tamra Elliott formerly managed land at MacBride Nature Area for the UI.
“This is something that my husband and I have been thinking about for a long time but more for a fun retirement,” Elliott said. “We are both into plants, plant communities, and building habitats. Growing up, I was always into animals. One day, it clicked that instead of having an animal at home in a cage, you can actually build a habitat for them outdoors.”
Andy Dahl, UI campus arborist, said the goats’ work helps areas that otherwise would be impossible to manage. The goats are moved strategically to mimic natural grazing patterns and fire cycles, helping prairie plants survive while controlling invasive species.
“Fire and animal browsing is what kept prairies the way they were back in the day, and without one or the other, you’re having a hard time,” Dahl said. “But this is going to be a tool. I’d like to continue doing this.”
“Mowing would have completely destroyed our soil,” Elliott said. “We want to protect a lot of those plants that are dormant by roots, not seeds. The goats let us do that.”
Dahl said he thinks the program will only continue to grow.
“The goats don’t call in sick,” Dahl said. “They work at night. They take care of [landscaping] that we just don’t have the labor force to do.”
Giannakouros said any student who would like to get involved in the project should contact Tamra Elliott.
“She’s just a wealth of knowledge, and she’s so good at educating, and she has this desire to talk to anyone who will listen about how she works and pass on that knowledge,” Giannakouros said.
Elliott said clearing these patches of brush might take a team of landscapers two weeks, but with the goats, it takes four days and is more cost efficient and sustainable in the long run. The goats’ work also contributes to the local ecosystem by returning nutrients to the soil through natural grazing and waste.