GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – The Port of Green Bay is saying goodbye to lawn mowers and other machinery used to groom Renard Island this summer.
Sheep aren’t what you’d typically see near the Bay of Green Bay, but they’ve been hired to do some work on Renard Island.
“They eat their dessert first. So they’re going to come through, they’ll literally walk across, eat all the good stuff, and then they’ll walk back across eating the rest of the good stuff. And then they’re like, ‘Okay, I’ll eat my vegetables now,'” said Roxie Emunson with Wooly Green Grazers.
About 32 sheep are currently on the island, with more expected to come. They’ll be on Renard Island 24/7 through the summer, and as late as October.
Located near Bay Beach Amusement Park, the 55-acre man-made island is not open to the public. But in the next couple of years, the county hopes that will change.
“We want to keep the vegetation down because eventually, we’d like this island to be a recreational facility,” said Mark Walter, business development manager for the Port of Green Bay.
In 2019, the Brown County Port & Resource Recovery Department released a master plan for Renard Island, which included creating a trail system, camping and picnic areas and a marina for boat traffic.
Walter says as of right now, all of that is still on the table. The county also hopes the island is chosen as the site for a National Estuarine Research Reserve facility. UW-Green Bay would manage the site.
“We’ve got water here and we’re on the water. I mean, this is as close as you get to the water. So in our view, from the Brown County’s standpoint, from my department’s standpoint, this is a perfect place for it,” said Walter.
In the meantime, the sheep will continue munching on the land for some old fashioned landscaping.
Renard Island was created in the late 1970s. It’s where toxic PCB sediment dredged from the bay harbor was placed. It was capped in 2015, and leaders emphasize the land is safe.
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