The City of Chestermere is committed to controlling weeds in a safe and environmentally responsible manner. The City follows the Integrated Pest Management practice (IPM), which aims to maintain a healthy environmental balance while protecting the native habitat, Lake and wetlands, plants and animals from invasive species in the least environmentally impacting way possible.

As part of the IPM techniques to control weeds in our parks, over 300 goats will be visiting Chestermere this spring/summer to munch through the north end of the lake (off-leash area). Target Browsing with goats is ideal for ecologically sensitive areas where herbicides or other control methods are impractical or not appropriate.

Various types of weeds exist in the off-leash area including: Typha Cat tail, Symphoricarpos Snowberry, Reichardia Sow Thistle, Cirsium arvense Canada Thistle and more. To view the complete inventory of this area, you can view this document.