Wayne's descriptions of the problems in Vancouver are so very familiar.
The molt period is truly a difficult time due the interface of geese and
people in parks during a time of year when many people want to be using
the parks.

On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, WAYNE WEBER wrote:

> I am not advocating the "goose roundup" approach in Stanley Park
> as any better than the approach used in the Seattle area. Prior to the
> goose roundup, lethal control methods (addling of eggs in concentrated
> nesting areas) were tried. The uproar was such that lethal control
> methods were considered to be politically unacceptable, and abandoned.

Interestingly, those on the Thurston County committee that drafted plans
for dealing with the problem had little problem accepting egg-addling as
a reasonable way to go. Hunting was considered an acceptable way to kill
geese and egg-addling was considered an acceptable way to limit production
of more geese. It's when we got to round-ups and euthanizing geese with
Carbon Dioxide that people really starting objecting.

> I doubt that efforts to reduce the amount of lawns in shoreline
> areas will have much success. In the Vancouver area, the geese tend
> to concentrate in some areas (e.g. Stanley Park, Westham Island,
> Serpentine Fen) and ignore other areas with suitable habitat. There is
> lots of potential for further increase in urban goose numbers!

So, Wayne, are you saying that reducing the amount of lawn will not be
successful because it would be too big a job with too much human resistance
or are you saying that, even with great reductions in the amount of lawn,
the goose population will remain, or perhaps even continue to grow.

> There is no easy solution to this problem. A large part of the
> reason is the widely divergent attitudes of people toward geese.

Amen. Hunters in my part of the world would be quite happy to have
a burgeoning population of resident geese that parks managers and
lakefront owners constantly chased around to try to limit damage and mess.
Many of these geese are available to these hunters at times, in certain
places but, for hunting to be really good, there needs to be many, many
geese, enough geese to stock all of our parks and pastures, and a few extra
to boot.

Kelly McAllister
Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife