This message is in response to Sandi's and Tom's regarding the proposed kill of 50 Canada Geese by the Renton Airport.
The Canada Goose issue is not going away soon and I'm concerned that the environmental/birding community is not sending out the right message to people planning to kill geese.
This bird is a grazer. It may opportunistically eat insects in lawns but it basically does what a cow does: it eats grass. Irrigated lawns replicate an emergent wetland: new shoots of grass are ideal food for geese and because the grass is mowed they are available throughout the breeding season, indeed year round. These habitats did not exist before the Toro and subsidized water and that's why Canada Geese did not exist as a breeding bird, as far as I know, in this area prior to pioneer times.
Therefore anyone who maintains an irrigated lawn or even an un-irrigated lawn during times of high moisture is managing for geese. Another way of looking at is that they are sending out expensive invitation cards to Canada Geese, written in Goose language, to come have a permanent banquet on the house.
For these people to then start whining about the number of geese who have responded to their invitation is, from a wildlife management point of view, absurdly tautological.
Anyone with a geese problem can stop irrigating and stop mowing , allowing woody plants and weeds to invade. Contrary to popular opinion, this will make the land look more beautiful, not less, and will promote biodiversity as well as get rid of the goose problem. It will also help reduce crow and starling densities which are also plaguing this area, since these birds are also lawn specialists.
By contrast, lethal removal won't work unless it done very aggressively and repeatedly, because animals will try to fill available habitat niches and most species, including Canada Geese, have incredible reproductive power.
-Ed Newbold, Seattle (newboldwildlife at netscape.net)



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