Matt Knox wrote a nice reply about the "hazing" of geese, and unfortunately,
other birds at Kent Ponds. And he's asking for suggestions about protecting
new plantings from the geese. I figure that our Tweets list is ~ 900
people, and some folks may have some suggestions for him.
The Green River Natural Resources Area (Kent Ponds) is relatively large. At
304 acres, it is almost a square mile. It's a wildlife refuge, in the
middle of a vast industrial park area in the Kent valley, south of Seattle.
It's ponds have always been an area that attracted Canada Geese. The area
was enlarged and enhanced by engineering and planting and is now one of the
largest man-made, multi-use wildlife refuges in the United States. It was
opened to the public in Oct 1998. It's owned by the City of Kent.
Now the new plantings are being threatened by goose predation. I know there
are some other refuges in the Seattle area that are also goose havens.
Wonderful Bellefields Industrial Park, which is in Bellevue on the Mercer
Slough, used to be nothing but buildings and grass. And all it had was
Canadian geese. Then volunteers came in, tore out the grass and put in
bushes and shrubs. Now it has a varied population of birds and other
wildlife. Marymoor Park on Lake Sammamish is even bigger than the Kent
Ponds at almost 2 square miles. It also has a large goose population, but
it has multiple uses and the geese there tend to graze on the soccer fields
(I think). I don't know how they are controlling goose-eating of plants at
the Montlake Fill, but I know they are trying to grow native plant there.
So how are other wildlife areas handling this problem? Does anyone have any
insight for Matt Knox, the GRNRA manager? Are there alternatives to hiring
goose-harrassing dogs, or firing blanks from handguns? Matt isn't on this
list, but I'll forward messages from Tweets or you can respond to his email
below.
Thank you for any suggestions.
Carol Schulz
DesMoines
linusq at worldnet.att.net

-----Original Message-----
From: Matt Knox <matt.knox at gte.net>
To: Lynn & Carol Schulz <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
Cc: lgaebe at email.msn.com <lgaebe at email.msn.com>; Orness, Roger L
<Roger.Orness at PSS.Boeing.com>
Date: Friday, November 12, 1999 11:56 PM
Subject: Re: Gunshots At Kent Ponds This Afternoon


>Carol -- a couple other quick notes: We will most likely be finished with
>our hazing efforts by the end of this month, and, unfortunately, the
smaller
>cackling geese decoy in the larger, more problematic Canada geese. The
>cacklers also seem to be causing as much damage to the plants as their
>larger cousins. Therefore, we pretty much have to haze off both races.
>
>Sorry, this method isn't very appealing to bird afficionados such as you
and
>I, but we feel it is a necessary evil. Please let me know if you find any
>other effective, less disturbing alternatives.
>
>Thanks for your understanding.
>
>Matt.
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: Lynn & Carol Schulz <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
>To: Matt Knox <matt.knox at gte.net>
>Cc: Lydia Gaebe <lgaebe at email.msn.com>; Roger Orness
><Roger.Orness at PSS.Boeing.com>
>Date: Friday, November 12, 1999 6:15 AM
>Subject: Re: Gunshots At Kent Ponds This Afternoon
>
>
>>Matt:
>>Now I understand (I guess). Thanks for your reply.
>>Yours, Carol Schulz
>>-----Original Message-----
>>From: Matt Knox <matt.knox at gte.net>
>>To: Lynn & Carol Schulz <linusq at worldnet.att.net>
>>Date: Friday, November 12, 1999 1:40 AM
>>Subject: Re: Gunshots At Kent Ponds This Afternoon
>>
>>
>>>Guess I probably should have mentioned it to everyone -- we've been using
>>>pyrotechnics to help haze the geese at the site. That was me out there
>>>trying to lift the ~300 geese off the pond today. I prefer to use the
>>>services of our contractor, Kalcade Geese Police whenever possible, as
her
>>>dogs are much more selective in their hazing than the pyrotechnics.
>>>However, she was not available this afternoon, and there were just too
>many
>>>geese grazing on new areas (with the recent rains).
>>>
>>>Rest assured, I will try to minimize use of the pyrotechnics. This is
>only
>>>a temporary measure to try and allow the wetland plants a little more
>>growth
>>>before they are covered with water this winter. We may also use dogs,
>>>pyrotechnics, and possibly other methods next summer to allow the
recently
>>>planted emergents to grow as much as possible during the growing season.
>>We
>>>have no plans to continue goose hazing after next fall, but with the ever
>>>increasing Puget Sound goose population, minimal efforts may still be
>>>necessary.
>>>
>>>Thanks for your concern. Please write back with any other comments.
>>>
>>>Matt Knox.