Past Field Day: Goats for Vegetation Management and Soil Building

Resources 

• Vahana Nature Rehabilitation: learn more about Cailey’s work in innovative goat-based environmental stewardship including vegetation control, soil-building services, and educational programs.
• Soil Health Assessment Protocol (SHAP): this was a BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food project, that provides information about indicators for monitoring your soil health.  See attachment to learn more about soil carbon, organic matter, available water and more. 
• Kootenay Soil Building Network (KSBN): 
  • This program was funded by the BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food, and allowed KBFA to complete free soil testing for 12 farms across the Kootenays. We also helped farmers investigate on-farm soil-building practices and wrote several case studies that you can check out.  
    • Ministry page
    • KBFA page
• Invasive weeds: 
  •  Field Guide to Noxious Weeds of British Columbia 
    • The BC Weed Control Act imposes a duty on all land occupiers to control designated noxious plants.
    • Some plants need to be controlled everywhere in the province (e.g. spotted knapweed) and others vary regionally (e.g. orange hawkweed needs to be controlled in the East Kootenays, but not everywhere in BC).
  • East Kootenay Invasive Species Council 
    
    • Priority Invasive Weeds of East Kootenays – guide on how to ID and control
    • EKISC Invasive Plant Priority by Invasive Plant Management Area 2026  
      • this guide tells you how much effort you are expected to put into controlling each species based on where you live. Some need to be eradicated, others just need to be contained.  
      • Ta Ta Creek is in Invasive Plant Management Areas (IPMA) #3 (see page 3 for a map). Leafy spurge needs to be eradicated here, while orange hawkweed needs to be contained. Sulphur cinquefoil is considered established in this area so it is at a lower priority, although we know it can cause serious crop losses if not controlled in a pasture.   
      • EKISC is a great resource if you need help identifying or figuring out what to do with your invasive or noxious weeds!