Yea, lawns are nice (if you don't mind cutting them). I got one too when
we bought our house.

It's not just an issue about being a smorgasbord for geese in some areas
(I've yet to see a goose or duck on my lawn -- not really near water or
wetland). It's also increasingly a broader habitat issue. As human
population grows, suburbia/exurbia shifts ever outward, more houses are
built, and more lawns replace what was otherwise undisturbed/less disturbed
tracts.

We can improve our yards as habitat (shrubs and other cover) for some
species and still have some grass in which to scrunch our toes. Some of
you out there probably have experience actually doing this and can offer
specific suggestions.

My impression/observations are that geese that capitalize on the grass we
cultivate, do so predominantly in more expansive public areas; areas that
should be especially utilized by humans so that everyone doesn't have to
have their own lawn (or a big lawn anyway).

=========================================
Ned McGarry
Kirkland, WA
nmcgarry at gte.net


-----Original Message-----
From: StahlfeldE at aol.com [SMTP:StahlfeldE at aol.com]
Sent: Thursday, May 06, 1999 10:36 AM
To: tweeters at u.washington.edu
Subject: Nuke the geese

Tweeters:

I like lawns. Especially when I can play with my five-year-old daughter,
running around without worrying about falling on asphalt, playing catch,
jumping, tumbling.

I also liked taking her, my wife and two-year-old son to Montlake, where
they
saw as many Canadas as they wanted, and were thrilled by the goslings (one
family had eighteen).

Everything should have its place. Canadas in Montlake, wonderful. Canadas
causing a health hazard, no.

We kill animals to eat (unless you are a total vegetarian). Canadas should
be no different from cows, or ducks. If we can't chase them away . . .

Nuke the geese!

But wouldn't a neutron bomb be better than strategic or tactical nukes?
:-)

Eric Stahlfeld
Burien