To free range, or not to free range!?

Im torn, because my wife and I love to see our girls free range in our backyard. However, we put down weed barrier and 2 inches of bark dust around our entire fence line over the past two years while we landscaped it. All before we discussed having chickens...

When the girls free range, they scratch the bark all over the place, and onto the lawn. It takes me 20 mins to rake everything back after we put them in there pen again... I have procrastinated the entire past week on raking, because its either never let them free range again, or fix it so they can...

Do we get rid of the weed matting and move 3/4 of the bark to the front yard, or just never again let them free range? My wife said its up to me because I maintain our yard : / What to do..

To free range, or not to free range? Let the voting begin!