Meet Our Team

Zach Richardson 2Zach Richardson

Zach grew up in Nashville, graduated from Montgomery Bell Academy in 2007, then earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Landscape Architecture from the University of Georgia in 2012 and 2014, respectively.

As an undergraduate, Zach began to experiment with using animals to eradicate exotic invasive plants in Athens, GA. Soon thereafter, Zach received a grant from UGA’s Office of Sustainability to use sheep and goats to manage a 2-acre overgrown lot in the heart of campus.

Following graduation, Zach wanted to complement his academic studies and pre-professional faculty mentoring with real-world targeted grazing work. There are a handful of companies around the world that do this kind of work. Fortunately, one of the best, Ewe-Niversally Green, is based in nearby Atlanta, where Zach landed his first job in the field.

For three years in Atlanta, Zach steadily learned the trade of targeted urban grazing from Brian Cash, Ewe-Niversally Green’s founder and also a breeder and trainer of world-class working border collies and livestock guardian dogs. Zach’s responsibilities grew quickly along with his knowledge of sheep, dogs, fencing strategies and—most importantly—how to best serve and satisfy both paying clients and the communities in which the sheep worked.

In Atlanta, his clients included a large number of residential customers with overgrown lots in addition to many commercial and municipal customers with larger tracts of land, like the Atlanta City Parks, Brookhaven Parks, Park Pride, Trees Atlanta, Paideia School, Marist School, and many others.

After this apprentice work, Zach returned home to Nashville in 2016 to start the Nashville Chew Crew. He quickly landed a variety of jobs, including residential and municipal work. If you’ve been to the greenway along the river at Metro Center or Fort Negley Park downtown, you’ve probably seen the Chew Crew in action.

Zach is eager to bring the benefits of targeted grazing to residential, commercial, nonprofit and municipal customers throughout the greater Nashville area.

He’s also available to consult with municipal governments, owners of large commercial tracts or private land owners who may benefit from targeted grazing.

Duggie

Duggie, an experienced border collie and Zach’s best friend and business partner, loves nothing more than working with the sheep. If he’s not herding, he’s staring intently at Zach or the sheep, waiting for a whistle. Duggie’s chores include gathering the sheep, guiding them on and off the trailer, and guiding the sheep to their enclosure. His other interests include frisbees, tummy rubs, and shedding in the truck.

 

Livestock Guardian Dogs

Nashville Chew Crew’s livestock guardian dogs serve as the flock’s 24-hour security guards. They have an inseparable bond with their sheep. Unlike border collies, this type of true working dog is rarely seen in action in the United States. In the parts of the world where these breeds originated, the dogs were used to protect sheep and goats from predators such as bears, wolves, and mountain lions. Here in Middle Tennessee, these dogs protect sheep mainly from coyotes and stray dogs.

 

Sheep

Nashville Chew Crew’s hooved employees are a breed of hair sheep, meaning their coats consist of mostly hair fibers instead of wool. Unlike the archetypal wool sheep, hair sheep shed their coats naturally, making them better suited to Tennessee’s warm summers and mild winters.

The flock is comprised entirely of mature females, or ewes. These ewes are very accustomed to a diet of urban plants, and their appetites are voracious!