Chicago Park District plans to manage Canada geese

[cassiesmom]

(I think this is just wrong. Leave the geese alone.)


This is one egg hunt that's not for kids

By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah
Tribune staff reporter

March 21, 2007

Dozens of Chicagoans will be hunting for eggs in city parks this spring--and we're not talking about the sweet, candy-covered chocolate ones.

Instead, they'll be looking for big, white goose eggs. And when they find them, park officials will get experts to kill them.

For the first time in Chicago, the Park District is enlisting volunteers to search for eggs laid by Canada geese in its ongoing effort to curb the messy population.

Last year, park officials hired geese experts to find nests in four city parks and destroy the eggs by shaking them or coating them with corn oil.

The program proved so successful that this year seven other parks have been added, and the city needs volunteers to search for the eggs, which are four times the size of a large chicken egg.

"I can't stress enough, this is not an Easter egg hunt," said Susan Hagberg, president of Wild Goose Chase, which performs goose and seagull control for the Chicago Park District. "This is very regulated. If people think they can do this on their own, they can't."

Hagberg stressed that the volunteers won't handle the eggs.

"These volunteers will be extra eyes for the professionals," said Ellen Sargent, the district's deputy director of natural resources.

Park officials have noticed a growing number of Canada geese in city parks. So the agency is holding a seminar and training workshop on Canada geese Saturday. The volunteers will have two opportunities to help: at Grant Park on April 7 and Lincoln Park on April 14.

The method of killing the eggs, called egg depredation by experts, is considered a more humane way to curb the population of geese, which typically nest from the third week of March until the end of April.

Volunteers will be paired with an employee of La Grange-based Wild Goose Chase. Once volunteers spot a nest, the experts will take care of destroying the eggs.

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service can fine violators who remove nests or eggs without a permit up to thousands of dollars, Hagberg added.

Park officials in Rockford have also recently recruited volunteers to help find geese nests and eggs, Hagberg said.

Last year, Wild Goose Chase found 120 nests in Douglas, Garfield, Marquette and McKinley Parks in Chicago, stopping new geese from being added to the out-of-balance geese population, Hagberg said. This year, the group's permit from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources allows it to target 300 nests.

Shaking the egg or coating it with corn oil stop the egg's development, and it's then placed back in the nest. At the end of 28-day incubation period, Wild Goose Chase crews remove the nests and bury the eggs.

Experts said a goose can lay about six eggs in a nest.

Saturday's seminar at the Daley Bicentennial Plaza in Grant Park will inform people about the ins and outs of geese habitats: how they mate for life, are extremely protective of their nests and sometimes nest in unusual places, such as planters and rooftops.

The volunteers will learn about the life cycle of the goose and why geese have become a problem in Chicago. With climate changes and milder weather, more migratory Canada geese are living here year-round, experts said.

Feeding birds also aggravates the problem, park officials said. The seminar and warning signs will discourage feeding the geese. In an urban setting, the birds have also gotten away from their natural predators, such as coyotes and the Arctic fox, Hagberg said.

The geese, often found in pairs, sometimes live near the water's edgepark ponds and lagoons. They also enjoy munching on grass baseball fields across the city.

The parks, Sargent said, have become "home sweet home for them."

Recently, park officials have done restoration work on lagoons, replacing short grass at water's edge with taller grass that the geese do not like. Last year, they sprayed a digestive irritant across the grass in Grant Park, which had become a feasting ground for the birds. During the fall migratory season, border collies were used to drive away geese.

Diane Webber, spokeswoman for the Humane Society of the United States, said she sees nothing wrong with park agencies' seeking volunteers to find geese eggs.

"We'd much rather see the Canada geese problem resolved by dealing with the eggs," she said. "It's much more humane than rounding up the geese and gassing them."

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- The Chicago Park District will hold a training session and seminar on Canada geese from 10 a.m. to noon Saturday at the Daley

Bicentennial Plaza, 337 E. Randolph St., in Grant Park.

- Park officials will hunt for the eggs at the following parks: Columbus, Douglas, Garfield, Grant, Humboldt, Jackson, Lincoln (North and South Ponds), Marquette, McKinley, Sherman and Washington.

Volunteers will participate at only Grant and Lincoln Parks.

- For information, call the Park District Volunteer Office at 312-742-4775.
Copyright © 2007, Chicago Tribune

[sparks19]

I know they started doing that in some areas with the Cormorants. They are SO over populated they have started allowing hunters to shoot them... and there is no limit. And the provincial something or other has also started going around and coating the eggs with oil so they wont hatch. They have started doing this because they are SO overpopulated and their poop is so acidic that they are actually KILLING many of the trees and bushes in the area and they are eating all the Fry fish.... so other birds and critters that eat these fry are starving because there just aren't any left.... which in turn means the level of grown fish has drastically declined and animals (such as the bears) that eat them are also starting to starve.

Of course, I don't really know exactly why the geese are a problem but if they are anything like Cormorants I can understand it a little bit.

[Blue_Frog]

I'm not for killing any animals unnecessarly, but theres a huge problem with the geese in a lot of places... like around Toronto for instance.

Some reasons that the cull is necessary in some places --

- Over the years, people have been feeding the geese - so now, a lot don't migrate anymore. They camp out all year round. I remember when I was little (like 25 years ago *lol*), as a family we'd go to feed the 'ducks' (read: 3 mallards and like 50 geese) with old bread-butts, so I'm one of the contributors to the problem.

- Its not just in parks, or in lakes -- we have geese that live outside my work, and attack people trying to get into buildings, shopping centers, etc. while nesting as they get very hostile. These are large and agressive birds.

I've been attacked by geese before as one came down from the roof of my old building at me - not so much fun. My dads been attacked at his work, as he came around a building and got ambushed from behind -- he described it as being hit with a 2x4, and had quite the bruise later from it.

Some links on goose attacks -
http://www.in.gov/dnr/fishwild/hunt/geese/
http://sports.espn.go.com/outdoors/g..._sutton_goosed

- The geese get run over on the roads, back up traffic, and injure themselves and people when accidents get caused -- ever see a group of geese trying to cross a major highway, or even a 4 lane roadway?

- They end up destroying parks as hundreds of them descend and kill all the grass, foul the ponds, rivers and small lakes to a point where fish and wildlife that depend on teh fish don't do so well. This is due to the rebound and overpopulation that they have now (they were endangered a while back i think, i'd have to look it up). They foul parks, sports fields and golf courses so badly that they are unusable due to the amount of feces they leave behind -- running to catch or kick a ball, and slipping and falling in poo is less than pleasant trust me.


Now, I have nothing against the geese being around in parks, urban areas etc., however -some- population control has become necessary due to the sheer numbers that live in such small areas.


EDIT: The second link i posted has a lot of good information (humourous in parts) about the reasons behind goose attacks and some of the outcomes.


.

[critter crazy]

There are many areas around here, where the Geese population is way out of control. I prefer this method, than to just killing the birds. This is more humane. I know it still sucks, but sometimes it just has to be done.

[IRescue452]

On campus we are having a major problem, 200 geese on a 50 foot pond. We had a border collie to chase them but we don't anymore. This sounds like a good idea if they weren't so aggressive.

[Freedom]

Why can't they use the geese to feed the poor? Rather than "just gassing them," and a waste of animal life.

[Lady's Human]

Ever have wild goose?

When Geese overrun an area they destroy it. We had about 50 geese decide the small pond on our property was a good place to spend the summer. The goose droppings and the damage they did to the plants made them a HUGE irritant. Thankfully Lady managed to convince them NOT to come back.

[sparks19]

Why can't they use the geese to feed the poor? Rather than "just gassing them," and a waste of animal life.

That's an interesting idea.... I mean if hunters do it with their extra deer tags why not use geese for the same thing

Lady's Human, that is why they started allowing hunting on Cormorants. they are killing all kinds of plant life... not just because of their trampling but also because their poop is so acidic it just kills everything. they are also heavily depleting fish supply. I don't know if THAT is a problem with geese but sometimes population control is nessecary.

[king2005]

You want to see over population, go to Ottawa.. there are MILLIONS & MILLIONS & MILLIONS of them!! In Kanata when the fields are plowed or in early spring before the crop is started, the fields are FULL of geese...

I'm in full support of controlling the population with the distroying of the eggs. The reason the eggs cannot be removed, is because the geese will mate & will lay more, to replace the ones that went missing. So the only way to keep them from mating & laying new eggs, is to kill the egg & allow the parents to sit on the dead eggs.

i'm NOT in favor of killing the adults or already hatched geese, only because the population can be controlled another way, without harming a living creature (newly layed eggs have no nervous system, so it cannot feel any pain, or anything.. it just wont grow into something that can feel.

I AM in favor of hunting the adults for FOOD, not a cull.