Chicago Park District plans to manage Canada geese
(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
