After decades of contending with human disturbance of their habitats and migration routes, geese have made themselves at home in many areas of the country—and in some cases have worn out their welcome. But through volunteer efforts and training, some communities have found ways to turn animosity into peaceful coexistence with the big bird.

© Mike McFarland

Why did the goose cross the road, her babies in tow, right in front of moving cars and buses and SUVs on a 45-mph suburban thoroughfare? And why do the rest of her kind do that every day now in communities across the country?

The answer: to get to the Promised Land, a place where the grass is always greener than it should be, the mowed turf stretches right up along the borders of an artificial pond, and the predators have long since given up on foraging in the denuded environment that real estate agents like to call “well-kept.” If Mother Goose has to stop traffic to reach this goosey dream home, then so be it. If she has to waddle her way right through the manicured lawns of American suburbia, blessing them with her excrement, then that’s okay, too. It’s only natural—she’s a goose, and her kin have been feeding and pooping and breeding on the North American continent for thousands of years.

But even though geese claimed the land long before the Europeans did, it has taken less than two centuries for humans to plow and pave over this portion of the planet extensively enough to disrupt a lifestyle that’s been millennia in the making. Decimation of geese populations began in the 1800s, when massive hunting—for both recreation and market sale—devastated many species of wildlife. Hope for recovery came with the passage of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, but continued hunting kept the flocks scarce. In the 1930s and ’40s, captive birds in the Midwest were being shipped far away from home to places like the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, where their fate was no better; hunters often used them as live decoys, tying weights to their feet and placing them on the water to attract migrating geese.

By the 1950s, the giant Canada goose was considered so endangered that some scientists began declaring her extinct. Branta canadensis maxima has rebounded so spectacularly, however, that in many places she’s become Branta non grata and is often maligned by those who consider her feeding and elimination habits a nuisance. From Virginia to Missouri to Seattle, people who live or work near lakes and ponds engage in bitter battles over the goose “problem,” as the more tolerant or animal-friendly residents go head to head with those who would prefer to maintain unnaturally pristine backyards, parks, golf courses, and waterfronts.

In the past decade, the complaints have escalated to such a high pitch that state and federal agencies have responded with sanctioned round-up-and-slaughter operations. As recently as last summer, despite the vehement protests of The HSUS and other animal advocacy groups, federal wildlife employees captured thousands of geese in Puget Sound area parks, herding them into hot metal boxes and gassing them with carbon dioxide.

The action was not an isolated one. Lethal methods have long taken precedence over humane alternatives. In the early to mid ’90s, officials in Minnesota and Michigan began herding molting geese and taking them away for slaughter. Communities in other states followed suit, often subjecting geese to slow and painful deaths.

Given a climate of such strong anti-geese sentiment, it’s hard to believe that as recently as the ’60s and ’70s, wildlife managers in the Midwest were still rounding up dwindling populations for opposite reasons—to establish new breeding flocks for hunters. When the breeding led to “excess” birds in certain areas, wildlife managers simply shipped them off to other states.

Prompted by the giant Canada goose’s brush with extinction and intended only to restore populations, the relocation campaigns were wildly successful and went far beyond the goal of inflating the numbers. Migratory patterns of Canada geese were permanently altered, with many of the birds taking up full-time residence in places they may have previously treated as brief vacation spots. While some goose populations may never have had a strong migratory urge, others probably lost their way: Geese tend to return to breed at the place of their birth, and second-generation geese born to relocated parents wouldn’t even know what their native land looked like if they flew right over it.

“There’s a whole population of birds that has been kept in captivity by people, raised by hand, has lost a lot of its wild tendencies, and that we have definitely influenced in terms of their interest in and tendencies to migrate,” says wildlife biologist John Hadidian, director of The HSUS’s Urban Wildlife Program. “So it’s a self-inflicted wound. They hang around here all year, and we complain about it, but you know, we did that to them.”

Suburbia: The Ritz-Carlton of Geese

But if it was direct human intervention that changed the migration habits of some populations of Canada geese, it was indirect damage to the environment that made the birds want to stay put. It took millions of years of evolution to grow the forests and wetlands and prairies that once covered the vast stretch of land from the Atlantic to the Pacific, but it took only decades to turn much of it into turf grass, now the largest crop in the world. Freshly mowed grass is not only succulent and tasty to geese; it also provides easy access to the water it surrounds, whether that’s a large lake or a smaller fishpond. Geese are attracted to such areas because they don’t fly during the summer when they are molting and raising their goslings—and they like to be able to enter the water quickly if they sense a predator lurking.

With all its social mores and legal requirements to keep lawns neatly trimmed and relatively free of the marshy, native plantings that provide good visual and physical barriers along waterfronts, suburbia routinely provides “a four-star hotel for geese,” says Deb Doncaster of the Animal Alliance of Canada. Along with Pennsylvania landscape architect Jeff Keller, Doncaster has written a free downloadable manual on reducing goose populations through restoration of natural habitats. (See the resource list at the end of this article for more information.) Through their demonstration projects, Doncaster and Keller have been able to show that the introduction of thick plantings and visual barriers around water bodies has a tremendous impact on reducing resident goose populations.

“The geese are not the problem,” Doncaster says. “It’s part of a larger issue of ecological degradation. ... If you create the habitat, they will come.”

© John Hadidian To protect themselves and their babies from terrestrial predators, geese nest in areas that provide easy, open access to lakes and ponds.

Many of today’s manmade landscapes mimic the native environment of the giant Canada goose. One of 11 different subspecies of Canada geese, the giant Canada goose originates from the Midwest and is used to open, prairie-like areas, says Hadidian. Like the white-tailed deer, the goose has adapted easily even in busy areas; not even shopping mall retention ponds or median strips full of gourmet grass are beyond her range. The world of the urban Canada goose is a microcosm of the larger problem of a growing human population—and increasing human manipulation of the environment—on an ever-shrinking available land mass.

But there is new hope for the big birds. In Michigan, state wildlife officials halted their round-up-and-slaughter program in the mid-’90s and began working with The HSUS, the Detroit Zoo, and the Michigan Humane Society on a humane “egg addling” project that involved removing goose eggs and replacing them with dummy eggs. Many public and private entities in other states have begun to tackle the issue from a more humane angle as well, recognizing that geese are not pooping perpetrators but rather instinctive creatures who are simply responding naturally to their environment. Sometimes public sentiment is enough to sway those still on the fence. Just this summer, as federal wildlife agents were proceeding with plans to kill geese by the thousands in Seattle, pressure from geese protection advocates reversed the decision of a pharmaceutical company in Kansas City, Missouri, to participate in a statewide plan to eradicate certain geese populations through lethal means. Intending to follow in the footsteps of some other corporations in the area and find more humane alternatives, company officials announced they were withdrawing from the program.

When Residents Get Their Gander Up

© Mike McFarland Geese are grounded during the molting season, when they lose their flight feathers temporarily as their goslings begin to grow up. To protect themselves and their babies from terrestrial predators, geese nest in areas that provide easy, open access to lakes and ponds.

Those officials could easily take a page from GeesePeace, an organization begun three years ago in a lakefront community in northern Virginia. Now a model for others around the country, Lake Barcroft back then was a village divided; at a meeting of the homeowners association that governs this Fairfax County suburb of Washington, D.C., residents expressed fears that geese were threatening the safety of children on beaches and making the water in the lake unhealthy for swimming. They complained about geese destruction of backyard lawns from the dozens of birds who had begun making their way up closer to houses. Finally, they applauded when one homeowner suggested that they “kill all the geese.”

But some community members were vehemently opposed to killing the wild animals they had come to love; indeed, the presence of so much wildlife was one of the features that had attracted them to the area in the first place. Included among this group were Holly Hazard, a resident and the executive director of the Doris Day Animal League in Washington, D.C., and David Feld, another resident who wanted to help solve the problem humanely before it threatened to unglue his close-knit neighborhood.

With the help of wildlife experts from The HSUS and elsewhere, Hazard and Feld devised a successful plan for discouraging any further goose nesting and breeding at Lake Barcroft. Their work led Feld, whose background was in operations research and systems development, to found GeesePeace, an organization that promotes humane solutions to geese-human conflicts both locally and nationally. Using the examples of demonstration projects undertaken in planned communities, on hotel properties, and at a local college, GeesePeace has urged residents and community leaders in Virginia, Illinois, Missouri, and elsewhere to try proven methods such as barrier landscaping and habitat modification, border collie “harassment,” nontoxic repellents, “no feeding” signage, and egg oiling; this method of addling prevents eggs from hatching without interrupting the mama goose’s desire to incubate.

The approaches are not only more humane but also sensible—a major selling point when trying to gain the support of politicians. GeesePeace has formed bonds with local elected officials and developed relationships with federal, state, and county wildlife agencies. As a nonprofit entity, it has even entered into a public/private partnership with the Fairfax County government. “What we’re doing is not controversial,” says Feld. “If you can get the message across that this is possible, and if you can work together toward a common goal, with motivation you can make it happen.” GeesePeace has been successful at turning confrontation into cooperation, says Feld, in part “because I think people really want to solve the problem—they don’t want to fight about it.”

At its first annual conference last November, GeesePeace’s diversity of sponsors and speakers made humane population stabilization and “nuisance abatement” seem not just possible but preferable; the varied backgrounds and motivations of the attendees and agencies involved were a testament to the success of GeesePeace programs. From the local animal control officer to hotel property managers to community college groundskeepers to USDA wildlife biologists to animal protection advocates and scientists, the audience and presenters all had a vested interest in solving Canada geese issues, and they all had a vested interest in doing so humanely. As Feld often points out, it just makes sense to take the kind approach; not only is it more humane, but it’s also more lasting. Whereas a methodical and routine geese population stabilization program can stand the test of time, hunting or round-up-and-slaughter methods are only temporary fixes.

“You haven’t changed anything about the nature of the area,” says Feld. “You have not made the area unattractive to geese. ... And it sends the message that you solve the problem by killing, and you don’t necessarily solve the problem. It’s short-sighted. It’s like having ants in your house if you keep having sugar spilled all over the place. You can kill as many ants as you want to and you’re going to keep getting them—till you get at the root of the problem.”

A Goose on the Loose

Feld has the numbers to back up his arguments. Because of the extensive volunteer efforts in and around Fairfax County, GeesePeace estimates that by 2008, the county’s goose population will have decreased by 13,000.

GeesePeace officials liken the efforts to longtime spay/neuter campaigns; their materials even present an illustration similar to the cat and dog multiplication formulas often used to encourage pet sterilization: “Over eight years,” the graphic reads, “four adult geese and their heirs produce 54 nests, which produce 108 goslings, who grow up to be 108 adult Canada geese!”

© Mike McFarland Like the white-tailed deer, the giant Canada goose is a spectacular comeback story. Considered extinct by some scientists 50 years ago, the species has rebounded so phenomenally that even drivers in urban areas often have to yield for geese.

Of the millions of geese in the Atlantic flyway, about 300,000 are thought to be in Virginia; in Fairfax County, they share their space with 1 million people, 1,400 lakes and ponds, 380 county parks, and a host of golf courses, schoolyards, and hotel courtyards. The combination means inevitable friction; while some people choose to coexist peacefully with geese, realizing that there are only so many places they can go, others are less willing to forgive the birds their waddling trespasses.

After all, there are few places in the manmade environment that geese consider off-limits, as Kirk Kincannon, deputy director of Parks and Natural Resources for the City of Alexandria, can attest. At a park in northern Virginia, they were the stars in some Hitchcockian scenes: “We had several incidents ... where geese ganged up on kids to the point where they threw down their popcorn and ran to Mom and Dad,” Kincannon told the audience at the GeesePeace conference.

At the Hilton Alexandria Mark Center, which hosted the conference, geese had also gotten their gander up when they thought people were coming too close to their nests; their parental protective instincts led to a hissing incident or two around the swimming pool. And the outdoor catering area was being deluged with feces, so much so that the groundskeeper was spending a good portion of his time on “poop patrol,” resulting in excrement-related labor costs of $500 to $600 a month.

“I quickly learned how much comes out of a goose in one day,” said Richard Manzolina, the hotel’s director of property operations. “Multiply that by the 60 or 70 geese that we had, and you can see the extent of the problem.”

But, while aesthetically displeasing, goose poop does not present any significant health risks, contrary to previous claims by some federal and state agencies; in fact, two studies completed earlier this year confirmed that geese feces are relatively benign. One recently published by the National Wildlife Health Center, which falls under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Interior, concluded that “low frequency of positive cultures indicate that risk of humans to disease through contact with Canada goose feces appeared to be minimal at ... four sites in Massachusetts, New Jersey and Virginia during the summer and early fall of 1999.” Another study conducted by the New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife reported similar results, with researchers suggesting that Canada geese are not a significant source of environmental contamination.

There are more dangerous pathogens in the feces of songbirds who come to backyard feeders than there are in Canada goose poop, says Hadidian. “Sure, if you get a lot of geese on a lake for a long time, their droppings are going to affect the water quality,” he says. “But if you get a lot of dogs using an area, you don’t go out and say, ‘Let’s eradicate dogs.’ You say, ‘Let’s deal with the problem.’ We’ve got to clean the water up, we’ve got to make the water systems in the urban areas viable and self-regulating.”

Still, it’s difficult to tell that to people who are unable to use their backyards for all the poop soup scattered everywhere. “A lot of people are frustrated, and you can understand that anger. They feel like they haven’t been given good answers, and sometimes they haven’t, actually,” says Hadidian. “There are some absolutely positive things happening with the GeesePeace concept. It’s the only concept that’s going to work because it’s community-based. It says the people in the community do make the decisions and actually do solve the problems for themselves. They don’t rely on picking up a phone and calling some office somewhere and having people come out and do it for them.”

It’s Not So Loosey-Goosey

© John Hadidian Some communities enlist the help of trained border collies, whose mere presence is enough to make Canada geese fly elsewhere in search of a new pond. The sheepherders-turned-gooseherders are always kept at a good distance from the birds, and they are not brought near the geese during the molting season when the birds are unable to fly.

Solutions depend on the problems specific to each site, says Hadidian. “Every site is a little bit different, and on some sites, you’re going to want to invest in enhanced habitat changes,” he says. “You go out and mow your lawn every week, and you do that because you have to—you have to be conscientious about it, and you do it whether you’re in the mood to or not. But people put up a string fence to keep geese away, or they chase geese off their property, and they do that for a little while, and the geese keep coming back, and the people say it doesn’t work. Well, that’s because the birds keep trying you out, and there are going to be new birds trying you out, and you have to be persistent.”

“In a small golf course, you’re looking at a minimum of a half-million dollars of [lawn maintenance] equipment,” says Hadidian. “They have a huge investment in maintaining that landscape. You just have to invest a few dollars in keeping the geese away. You can’t do it for free.”

Since changing the habitat by adding lots of natural barrier plantings around ponds is not as feasible at a golf course, use of a nontoxic repellent may be one answer. But the combination of egg oiling and the presence of a border collie at golf courses and other sites have a powerful effect; most geese will choose to go elsewhere if the program is carried out conscientiously.

At Northern Virginia Community College, another institution that turned to GeesePeace for help, a combination of methods has done the trick successfully. In this case, groundskeepers weren’t trying to eliminate the geese presence entirely; they were interested in keeping about 25 to 30 of the birds on the campus. At the time, 60 to 80 geese lived there, inhabiting an extensive open grassy space and waddling down the walkways that wound through campus and around a pond area. “[The walkways] were covered with geese droppings,” said Ted McGill, a groundskeeper at the college who also spoke in support of Geese Peace methods. “They’re very methodical.”

McGill had just arrived at the school when his supervisors told him they wanted him to do something about the geese around campus. Having grown up in Ohio, where it was the norm to hunt geese, McGill was a bit concerned as to what his new bosses might be tasking him with. But “doing something” simply meant encouraging many of them to go elsewhere—by using a geese-feeding repellent called Flight Control, adding barrier landscaping around ponds, and bringing in the dogs. “Already I’ve seen a fantastic change,” said McGill. “The geese only stay in the areas we want them in. ... It’s quite impressive. I wouldn’t have believed it, but I do now. It works.”

In the case of the Hilton, border collies made the difference. And in the City of Alexandria’s goose-populated park, the goose population has plummeted from about 300 to zero, says Kincannon, through a combination of methods: landscaping around the pond, the presence of a border collie, and signs explaining to the public the importance of refraining from feeding.

“We have to continue to educate the public,” Kincannon told his audience. “Parks are a natural area where people want to feed geese.” People who feed geese are generally those who like animals, so it’s important to explain the reasons behind a “no feeding” policy. Rather than hanging unwelcoming and vague warnings, GeesePeace recommends the posting of friendly signs that make the connection between feeding and excess populations. “Why NOT feed ducks and geese?” reads a sign in the shape of a mama goose that GeesePeace developed. Smaller signs in the shapes of baby geese follow behind her and provide the answers: “Gaggles of birds may create a nuisance and people may want them removed.” “Some ducks and geese can become so aggressive, they have to be removed from the area!” “Feeding bread and popcorn is unhealthy for ducks and geese.”

“For one reason or another, people like to feed geese—I did it when I was little,” Feld told attendees of a workshop on nuisance abatement options. “Our suggestion is a friendly way of persuasion. If you need to go to an ordinance, go to that, but do that as a last step! We don’t live in a police state. If we can convince people not to do it, we should convince them not to do it.”

A unified front certainly helps when trying to encourage public cooperation. When a campus group formed to oppose GeesePeace’s methods and presence at Northern Virginia Community College, a representative of PETA wrote a letter in support of the program. “And we haven’t heard from this group since,” says Feld.

Helping Mother Goose Take Flight

Initially, animal lovers may be a bit addled themselves by the idea of addling a mama goose’s eggs or enlisting herding dogs to scare geese away from a site, but there is a right way to do it. Under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, virtually all native bird species are protected, and no birds, nests, or eggs can be taken or injured without a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service; all addling programs must be the result of a coordinated effort that involves both federal and state wildlife officials.

Methods of addling range from oiling of eggs to shaking, piercing, or replacement of eggs with “dummy” eggs; however, shaking can take several minutes and may not be as foolproof when volunteers with limited expertise are addling. Piercing can lead to spoilage and leakage, which could in turn lead to nest abandonment and re-nesting elsewhere. And procuring enough suitable dummy eggs may be a more involved process than simple egg oiling, which is generally the preferred procedure.

Regardless of the method used, egg addling programs must be carefully timed so that geese are not harmed, non-target species are unaffected, and addling is successful. Addlers keep track of when nests are built and when the mother starts incubating her eggs. Eggs are not addled until incubation has begun; if the procedure is performed too early, the mother goose might simply lay more eggs that would go untreated.

© Mike McFarland To ensure eggs have not developed past 14 days—the age at which addling is no longer acceptable—a volunteer places them in a bucket of water; if they sink, they are still young enough to be oiled.

When addlers approach the nest, they usually go in pairs or groups of three so that one person can watch out for a protective male and fend him away humanely for a minute or two. Eggs are then placed into a bucket of water: If they float, they are older than 14 days and cannot be addled humanely unless addlers employ additional euthanasia procedures; therefore, these eggs are better left undisturbed. But if the eggs don’t float, they are young enough to be addled. At this point, addlers mark them with a pencil or permanent pen for future identification purposes; if they’re using the oiling method, they then apply a light coating of corn oil that blocks oxygen transport through the shell and prevents further embryonic development.

Proper timing also involves revisiting the nest two weeks after addling has occurred; eggs must remain in the nest long enough to prevent re-nesting by the mama goose. But because mother geese tend to eat far less when they’re incubating, it’s important to remove the eggs in enough time to prevent an extended incubation period.

© Mike McFarland After drying the eggs but before oiling them, the volunteer marks them with a permanent pen so they can be identified later during the egg removal phase.

Timing is crucial when enlisting the help of four-footed friends, too; border collies are not brought near geese when they are caring for their young or when they can’t fly during the summer molt. And the dogs must be well-trained and accompanied by qualified handlers who never allow them to catch or harm a goose; the presence of a sheep-herder is often enough to make geese insecure and uncertain as to where and when he’ll appear next.

“A border collie wants to move livestock,” says Debra Marshall, who trains her border collies to help communities and commercial property managers with geese problems. “When he goes out onto the site, he thinks he’s going to round up those birds and bring them to me.”

Marshall places an emphasis on understanding and respecting both the birds and the dogs, telling people that owning a border collie requires time and commitment to their constant need for socialization and exercise. For its part, GeesePeace believes it’s important that any dog involved in a humane geese control program have a good home life; that’s why Lake Barcroft’s border collie goose patroller is happily ensconced in the home of Holly Hazard. Hazard is developing standards for the proper treatment and care of dogs involved in such programs; in the guidelines will be a recommendation that anyone looking to enlist the help of a border collie for a Canada goose nuisance abatement program should first look to animal shelters and breed-placement groups before buying a dog from a breeder.

For properties like golf courses, a resident dog is not appropriate, says Hazard, because the dog needs a primary caretaker and may have a rough time adjusting to staff turnover and other changes in his environment; keeping the dog well-trained would also be more difficult. Humane commercial services that treat dogs like family members may be an alternative; cooperative arrangements can also be developed whereby the owner of a trained border collie can volunteer to bring him to different sites at regular intervals.

“We’re very concerned about people who would do it on a fly-by-night basis,” says Hadidian, “people who just have a dog and say, ‘Oh boy, I can go charge a fortune to chase geese’ and not do it right, not take care of the dog right, and not deal with the geese right.”

Done appropriately, however, a humane geese control program brings communities together and draws out all the animal folks. Just a few months ago, as the Missouri Department of Conservation cranked up its plans for lethal cullings around the state, GeesePeace was called upon to help institute humane goose control programs at public and private properties in the St. Louis area. And the Humane Society of Missouri got involved, agreeing to find volunteers and host egg-addling training sessions at its facility beginning next February.

Because of these ongoing joint efforts in communities around the country, a wealth of information about launching a humane, effective, community-based program is at the fingertips of anyone who wants to get involved. Whether it’s questions about obtaining permits, organizing volunteers, learning proper addling procedures, or receiving training in egg addling, the answers can be found through Web sites (www.hsus.org or www.geesepeace.org), through wildlife experts at The HSUS, and through Geese Peace. “It takes a few hours a couple of days in the spring when you want to be outdoors anyway,” says Hadidian, “and you just go out and you spend a little time doing this and you really make a big difference.”