Honk If You Like Geese
At our September 21 meeting we listened to Jackie Segal of GeesePeace St. Louis, talk about the state of the Canada goose today. From the top down, the message is:
Don’t round up and kill the geese.
This is a problem people created, and one people can improve with relatively few resources.
Way back when, there was a fear the Canada Goose was in danger. Governments passed legislation protecting them in their migration to allow them to prosper. Well, it worked. 20-30 years later, this protection, along with human behavior that attracts geese to places we really don’t want them, has created a situation/problem/crisis (choose one) where killing geese is seen as the solution.
First killing the geese won’t solve the problem. As Jackie explained, generations of geese will return to their place of birth for their winter migration. It would take a sustained effort at extermination to eliminate them from a particular area. Though we humans can be heartless and mindless, we are not usually very persistent/consistent, and thus not very effective.
We have unwanted geese because we create ideal environments for them. Jackie had a short list of don’t that we have been DOing.
· Don’t feed them
· Don’t create what they see as safe secure habitats.
By not feeding them they will not come looking for our food, most of which is as bad for them as it is for us. Our corporate campus landscapes could be changed in subtle ways that will make them less attractive to geese and encourage them to move on down the road. If we go back and think like the bird it will be obvious.
The typical office park lake has neatly trimmed lawns running down to a man-made lake designed to be visible from the entire surrounding area. This puts the goose in an area with maximum warning/protection from its natural predators. Letting the grass near the lake grow to four inches is enough to make the goose scared of approaching snakes. Adding obstructions to sight lines such as rocks, trees and shrubs creates what geese perceive as concealment for predators like the fox and wolf.
A big part of the solution is educating the people responsible for the environments how to treat them. And where do you go for that education? GeesePeace of course.
