Post by 10point on Mar 13, 2007 9:08:09 GMT -5
According to this aritcle they exist:
Eased regulations could goose waterfowl control efforts
By JOE GERRETY
jgerrety@journalandcourier.com
An aerated lagoon with few visual obstructions to conceal potential predators. Plenty of nicely mown lawns in the surrounding neighborhoods to graze on. Flower beds and planters to build nests in. And an endless stream of visitors bearing bags of stale bread and popcorn.
Columbian Park is like heaven to a resident Canada goose.
So it's no wonder that, even with the temperature hovering in the low 20s early last week, a handful of the loud, gray, black-necked birds could be seen pairing up on the frozen surface of the lagoon near Jenks Rest.
"The droppings really pose a problem," said Ted Bumbleburg, the Lafayette parks superintendent. His office at Columbian Park is just a stone's throw from the front line in the annual battle to control a burgeoning waterfowl population that will be a nuisance by June.
Recent changes in the federal rules that allow landowners to control the Canada goose populations on their property likely won't impact the staff at Columbian Park, where employees for years have gotten federal permission to destroy nests and treat eggs with a lethal coat of corn oil.
But the changes could make it easier for homeowner associations and residential developers to combat Canada goose overpopulation.
Thanks to friendly habitats such as Columbian Park, the Canada goose population in Indiana has grown steadily in the past 20 years, said Dean Zimmerman, district wildlife biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The DNR estimates the state's breeding population to be about 80,000.
And that doesn't include smaller, non-resident Canada goose species that migrate between Canada and northern Mexico and stop off here in the fall and spring.
The growing population of Canada geese in Indiana has not affected operations at the Wildcat Wildlife Center, according to assistant director Denise Hays. The center, near Delphi, cares for injured and orphaned wildlife and provides advice for property owners with nuisance wildlife problems.
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"We do not take in any more injured geese at the wildlife center than we ever have," Hays said.
"In the last two to three years, we have raised fewer goslings than we ever have. ... We are not getting more calls about nuisance geese."
The resident Canada geese, which stand up to 4 feet tall and weigh up to 24 pounds, were reintroduced in many Eastern states in the 1970s and were more adaptive to urban living conditions than most biologists anticipated.
"We didn't expect them to take off so well," Zimmerman said.
In rural areas, predators such as coyotes, raccoons, foxes and snapping turtles cull the geese's broods of four to 10 goslings in the spring. But around urban ponds, humans have to find the nests and intervene before the eggs hatch.
Canada geese are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. But rules that took effect last September allow property owners who pre-register online with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct goose control activities, provided they file a report of their activities by Oct. 31.
Previously, property owners had to get a special permit from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to take such action.
In the next few weeks, giant Canada geese, the subspecies that causes most of the nuisance problems in residential areas, will begin building nests and laying eggs.
During that time, the adult geese may become aggressive toward people as they try to protect their nest sites.
"They'll snap and hiss at you, and we've had kids that have gotten pecked," Bumbleburg said.
Two months after the nesting season, which will peak in early- to mid-April, the adults will begin molting.
At that stage, in June and early July, they'll be unable to fly, and their presence on mown lawns adjacent to urban and suburban ponds, in parks and on golf courses, will be very obvious.
"The area along Scott Street here, where it's all dirt -- they've picked it clean," Bumbleburg noted, referring to damage from grazing geese.
What goes in must come out. And the green mess invariably winds up making the sidewalks along Scott Street -- and even as far away as the SIA Playground at the other end of the park -- an obstacle course.
Throughout the summer, park maintenance crews will have to wash the sidewalks to keep them passable.
"Around the Jenks (Rest) building, sometimes we have to do it twice a day," Bumbleburg said.
Eased regulations could goose waterfowl control efforts
By JOE GERRETY
jgerrety@journalandcourier.com
An aerated lagoon with few visual obstructions to conceal potential predators. Plenty of nicely mown lawns in the surrounding neighborhoods to graze on. Flower beds and planters to build nests in. And an endless stream of visitors bearing bags of stale bread and popcorn.
Columbian Park is like heaven to a resident Canada goose.
So it's no wonder that, even with the temperature hovering in the low 20s early last week, a handful of the loud, gray, black-necked birds could be seen pairing up on the frozen surface of the lagoon near Jenks Rest.
"The droppings really pose a problem," said Ted Bumbleburg, the Lafayette parks superintendent. His office at Columbian Park is just a stone's throw from the front line in the annual battle to control a burgeoning waterfowl population that will be a nuisance by June.
Recent changes in the federal rules that allow landowners to control the Canada goose populations on their property likely won't impact the staff at Columbian Park, where employees for years have gotten federal permission to destroy nests and treat eggs with a lethal coat of corn oil.
But the changes could make it easier for homeowner associations and residential developers to combat Canada goose overpopulation.
Thanks to friendly habitats such as Columbian Park, the Canada goose population in Indiana has grown steadily in the past 20 years, said Dean Zimmerman, district wildlife biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources. The DNR estimates the state's breeding population to be about 80,000.
And that doesn't include smaller, non-resident Canada goose species that migrate between Canada and northern Mexico and stop off here in the fall and spring.
The growing population of Canada geese in Indiana has not affected operations at the Wildcat Wildlife Center, according to assistant director Denise Hays. The center, near Delphi, cares for injured and orphaned wildlife and provides advice for property owners with nuisance wildlife problems.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We do not take in any more injured geese at the wildlife center than we ever have," Hays said.
"In the last two to three years, we have raised fewer goslings than we ever have. ... We are not getting more calls about nuisance geese."
The resident Canada geese, which stand up to 4 feet tall and weigh up to 24 pounds, were reintroduced in many Eastern states in the 1970s and were more adaptive to urban living conditions than most biologists anticipated.
"We didn't expect them to take off so well," Zimmerman said.
In rural areas, predators such as coyotes, raccoons, foxes and snapping turtles cull the geese's broods of four to 10 goslings in the spring. But around urban ponds, humans have to find the nests and intervene before the eggs hatch.
Canada geese are protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918. But rules that took effect last September allow property owners who pre-register online with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to conduct goose control activities, provided they file a report of their activities by Oct. 31.
Previously, property owners had to get a special permit from the Indiana Department of Natural Resources to take such action.
In the next few weeks, giant Canada geese, the subspecies that causes most of the nuisance problems in residential areas, will begin building nests and laying eggs.
During that time, the adult geese may become aggressive toward people as they try to protect their nest sites.
"They'll snap and hiss at you, and we've had kids that have gotten pecked," Bumbleburg said.
Two months after the nesting season, which will peak in early- to mid-April, the adults will begin molting.
At that stage, in June and early July, they'll be unable to fly, and their presence on mown lawns adjacent to urban and suburban ponds, in parks and on golf courses, will be very obvious.
"The area along Scott Street here, where it's all dirt -- they've picked it clean," Bumbleburg noted, referring to damage from grazing geese.
What goes in must come out. And the green mess invariably winds up making the sidewalks along Scott Street -- and even as far away as the SIA Playground at the other end of the park -- an obstacle course.
Throughout the summer, park maintenance crews will have to wash the sidewalks to keep them passable.
"Around the Jenks (Rest) building, sometimes we have to do it twice a day," Bumbleburg said.
