Canada goose complaints
In 1990, the state of Ohio received 95 nuisance complaints about giant Canada geese. That increased to 470 in 1995. In 2008, the Division of Wildlife gave citizens an online reporting option. Complaints over the past seven years:
2014 … 941
2013 … 1,049
2012 … 835
2011 … 761
2010 … 714
2009 … 691
2008 … 650
Source: Ohio Division of Wildlife
The sight of giant Canada geese in the Midwest used to make people pause in admiration.
Now the federally protected bird is viewed by many as an unwelcome nuisance.
An estimated 130,000 Canada geese call Ohio home. That number has doubled in 20 years and is expected to keep increasing despite government efforts to slow the population boom.
“There’s been an increase, especially in the urban areas,” said Brett Beatty of the Ohio Division of Wildlife. “Ends up they’re fairly tolerant of people and can use a wide variety of habitat folks create. Anyplace that has water and a manicured lawn has Canada geese.”
Those cushy living conditions have attracted more geese, leading to a man-versus-bird showdown. The state has logged 2,000 online complaints about Canada geese in the past two years, and Ohioans are now conditioned to watch their step when geese are present.
“When people start to dislike wildlife, that’s a problem,” said Mike Enright of Five Rivers MetroParks. “We want to minimize the conflict between people and geese so they can appreciate that we still have them around.”
Canada geese were thought to be extinct 60 years ago. Many states responded by launching re-introduction programs. Ohio’s began in 1956 at three sites — including Mercer County — and the program proved to be wildly successful.
There are now an estimated 1.5 million Canada geese in the Mississippi Flyway, which stretches from southern Canada to Alabama. According to a 2014 U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service report, “this is considered to be an over-abundant population, currently managed with the goal of reducing it.”
But geese continue to thrive. Their overall numbers have leveled off in recent years, but more geese are settling in Ohio.
“I’m three blocks from Delco Park and they make a mess out of the walk paths and everything else,” Kettering resident Rob Gast said. “They’re beautiful creatures but, man, they can be a pain.”
Hunting helps
An adult Canada goose weighs about 12 pounds and eats 2-to-3 pounds of grass per day. That leads to more than 1 pound of droppings, which can contain E. coli bacteria. Droppings are loaded with phosphorous and nitrogen, which experts say fuel the harmful algal bloom problem that has plagued Ohio lakes in recent years.
Canada geese thrive in Ohio because of abundant water and grass, and a lack of natural predators. Those factors have caused many geese to stop migrating.
“In the wild, geese are tundra birds; they like short grass and water bodies,” Enright said. “Any geese you see in the summer are resident geese. The geese that migrate are up in Canada on the tundra, not causing problems for anyone.”
The Ohio Division of Wildlife logged 95 complaints about Canada geese in 1990. By 2008, that number had grown to 650. Five years later, there were 1,049 complaints.
Geese are protected by the Migratory Bird Act of 1918, but states are allowed to cull their numbers. Ohio set aside 83 days for Canada goose hunting from September 2014 to January 2015, and an estimated 80,000 of the birds have been harvested in each of the past four years.
But plenty remain to cause havoc. Golf courses and their tranquil water hazards are prime attractions for geese. “They do quite a bit of damage, specifically to our greens,” said Kelly Pressel, golf manager for the city of Dayton.
Greg Wagner, owner of Stalk and Awe Geese Management Services, a three-year-old business with border collies that chase geese off properties, says he’s busy from “sunup to sundown.”
“Businesses spend a lot of money on the aesthetics of their property,” Wagner said. “They (geese) destroy the grass, they leave their droppings all over the place. Come April and June, they get really aggressive toward people when the nests and goslings are around.”
Airplane strikes
Canada geese also can cause trouble in the air. A 2013 Federal Aviation Administration report chronicled 1,400 instances of Canada geese-civilian aircraft collisions from 1990-2012. Seventeen percent of those caused “major damage” and the price tag to repair the planes was estimated at $116 million.
The most famous instance of Canada geese damaging an airplane occurred in January 2009, when a U.S. Airways jet hit a flock of the birds and was forced to land in New York’s Hudson River. All 155 aboard survived.
Dayton International Airport conducts daily wildlife patrols. Airport spokeswoman Linda Hughes said field maintenance staff uses noise cannons if a flock of birds is spotted. The airport also has planted tall prairie grass and plays a “goose distress call” on speakers in an attempt to chase geese away.
MetroParks also lets the grass grow around lakes and ponds. An experimental “grow zone” along the Great Miami River downtown proved to be a success last summer.
“To (geese), tall grass equals predators,” Enright said.
Dayton’s golf courses use lasers early in the morning, and a variety of other measures to keep geese uncomfortable: pyrotechnics, border collies and cutouts of predators such as coyotes and foxes.
MetroParks uses a non-toxic chemical made from grape seed extract, which makes grass taste sour to geese. The non-toxic chemical is used at Riverscape during the warmer months and costs about $150 to treat an acre of grass.
At Cox Arboretum, a border collie named Zip roams the property.
“To him, it’s a game,” Enright said. “He doesn’t want to hurt them, he just wants to chase them.”
Permits to destroy eggs or even shoot geese can be obtained from the Division of Wildlife. The egg program involves a little subterfuge: small holes are drilled into the eggs, which stop them from hatching, and then the eggs are put back in the nests so the geese don’t lay more.
Last year, 660 such permits were issued in Ohio. This year’s permits go into effect March 11.
Other permits allow for geese to be rounded up and euthanized. More than 1,500 geese were caught in 45 “roundups” statewide in 2014. They are conducted during the geese’s molting season, when they can’t fly.
Pressel said Dayton conducted roundups at Community and Kittyhawk golf courses two years ago and is considering another roundup this year.
Not everyone wants to get rid of the geese.
“It’s a tough rope to walk, especially when you’re dealing with so much private property,” said Beatty, a supervisor for the Division of Wildlife’s District 5, which covers 17 counties in southwest Ohio.
“One person loves them, the next person hates them,” Beatty said. “So you’ve got one guy out there chasing the geese … and the next property over, there’s a person who puts out 50 pounds of corn a day to feed them.”
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