Spring 2000
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Spring 2000 |
Urban Canada geese are trying our patience
We brought them here, made them good homes, now how do we get them to leave?
To some, that may sound like adult children whose time has come to leave the nest.
But this is about Canada geese – thousands of them who have taken advantage of the urban habitat both intentionally and accidentally created for them, that are now trying our patience by their very presence.
How is it that a beautiful species, whose distinctive V-shaped strands on the wing across spring and autumn skies makes us pause, whose plaintive, wild honking sends a primeval chill up our spines, has become such a source of aggravation?
Easy. There are simply too many eating and pooping in the wrong places -- city parks, golf courses, residential backyards, and other urban settings. Canada geese have found a good thing here, especially in western Washington’s urban areas: abundant food, mild climate, few predators, and no hunting pressure.The succulent lawns, access to open water, and peaceful nesting areas are enough to call it home.
And many Washington urbanites, particularly in the Puget Sound area, have had enough to call it war.
Most Canada goose populations are migratory, wintering in the southern U.S. and migrating north to summer breeding grounds in the Canadian arctic. But increasing urban and suburban development in the U.S. has inadvertently created ideal year-round goose habitat, and populations are up everywhere. Washington surveys showed that goose numbers in the Columbia River drainage doubled, and in some areas tripled, in the decade between 1982 and 1993.
Canada geese were a rare occurrence in Puget Sound 30 years ago, and the western subspecies is actually considered a non-native to the area. Some western Canada geese were introduced to Puget Sound in the ‘60’s when McNary and John Day dams were completed on the Columbia River and an effort was made to rescue nests and eggs from rising water levels. Others were released during the ‘70’s through relocations from damage areas, and others expanded naturally from the eastside. Geese in the Puget Sound area increased by 434%, from 3,110 in 1988 to 13,512 in 1997!
Like other adaptable wildlife species, geese try to make a living wherever their needs can be met most easily. In urban areas, they congregate wherever grass lawns (food) are near waterways (security). Large flocks denude lawns and their droppings don’t just ruin aesthetics -- in heavy concentration they can over-fertilize lawns, contribute to excessive algae growth in lakes that can result in fish kills and closure of public swimming areas, and potentially contaminate municipal water supplies.
Geese are very aggressive when nesting and may attack people who come near their nests. Geese have also been involved in a growing number of airport problems, from take-off and landing delays while they are harassed out of the area, to actual aircraft collisions.
In 1987, the growing population of resident Canada geese and the problems they were causing in and around Seattle prompted the formation of the Seattle Waterfowl Committee. Federal and state (WDFW) wildlife biologists participated from the beginning as advisory members.
As a migratory species, Canada geese fall under the U.S Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) jurisdiction and the first line of response to damage complaints comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA). One of the first attempts at control was trapping and release of resident geese from the Puget Sound area by the USDA’s Wildlife Services (WS). Between 1989 and 1994, WS captured and transported 7,342 geese to sites in
eastern Washington and northern Idaho, (ironically including the Columbia and Snake River areas from which some had come just a couple of decades earlier!) These relocations proved largely ineffective, however, because most moved into other urban areas or even back to Puget Sound! (It seems that you can take the goose out of the city, but you can’t take the city out of the goose!) Wildlife managers also began to fear that relocated geese would spread diseases into migrant populations, so relocating ended.
Between 1992 and 1998, WS addled (destroyed by oiling, shaking, or puncturing) 6,336 Canada goose eggs from urban area nests. This also proved insufficient in the absence of goose removal, and damage complaints continued to increase. In 1997 and 1998, WS resorted to the lethal removal of 450 geese from three sites in Puget Sound and an additional 128 from various other locations. The euthanized geese were donated to local food banks.
WDFW often manages goose populations by regulated hunting, but of course that’s not possible in most urban and suburban communities.
When this newsletter was prepared (February-March), USFWS held public meetings (including in the Puget Sound area) to solicit comments on an Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) to develop a nationwide management strategy for resident Canada goose populations in human-populated areas. This management strategy proposes both non-lethal and lethal control. EIS copies can be obtained from, and written comments can be sent through March 30, 2000 to, Office of Migratory Bird Mgmt., US Fish &Wildlife Service, Dept.of the Interior, MS 634 ARLSQ, 1849 C St., NW Washington, D.C. 20240.
E-mail: canada_goose_eis@fws.gov.
Meanwhile, WDFW biologists advocate habitat alterations and public education as the most desirable methods of goose control.
Whether you live in the Puget Sound area or other places in Washington where geese can be a problem, here’s what you can do to help:
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