Abstract
Mowing of greenspace is essential for maintaining the designed landscape, its accessibility, and the ecosystem. Mechanical mowing causes environmental impacts such as noise, emission of CO2, and discharge of waste. Moreover, if the frequency of mowing is insufficient, it may lead to infestation of invasive species and degradation of the desired vegetation, and therefore lead to negative impact to the ecosystem. Prescribed grazing by herbivores can be a solution to these issues, but few cases have been conducted in an urban area. In this paper, grazing of an urban greenspace in Tokyo was conducted using goats, and the management methods, effects on the vegetation, and influences to the local residents were studied. It was revealed that the continuous grazing by goats decreased the cover of large perennial weeds including invasive alien species, and fundamental knowledge of prescribed grazing in urban greenspaces was obtained. Also, it was made clear that the grazing with goats had a positive effect on local residents for raising awareness of the natural environment.
