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With as many as 500 Canada geese soiling the city’s parks every spring and fall, Sparta officials are considering a plan to thin the defecating gaggle. And that has ruffled some feathers.
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Perch lake along Sparta city golf course. Dick Riniker photo |
Among the strategies is an ordinance to ban feeding waterfowl on Perch Lake, which the city council will consider at its Feb. 19 meeting. The city also may allow hunters to shoot the birds in the fall.
Sparta’s primary target is resident geese that nest around the lake and now number about 100, said city administrator Ken Witt. The birds leave feces in the adjacent golf course and city park, where officials say it is a nuisance and health hazard.
There are fairways where golfers “can’t get out of their carts without stepping in something,” said Barry McMullin, the course manager. “Playground equipment is unusable. You can’t let your kids play in that stuff.”
Sparta golfers agree, saying the goose poop particularly is bad on several fairways and greens.
“It looks like there’s little dogs all over the golf course,” said Jacin King, a golfer and owner of Slippery’s Wonder Bar.
Other residents aren’t so sure.
“There’s no problem,” said Butch Jandt, manager of the VFW post, where patrons like to gather on the patio overlooking the lake and throw crumbs to the geese. Jandt said the city proposal would benefit golfers while taking away a popular form of entertainment for older residents and those who can’t afford the sport.
He also doubts whether a feeding ban would solve the problem.
A safe place in town
Resident geese pose the biggest problem because they remain through the summer when people are trying to enjoy the parks and outdoors, said Dan Hirchert, a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. They also attract migrating birds, which can swell Sparta’s seasonal population to 400 to 500, according to city officials.
“A lot of those birds have figured out that it’s a really safe place to be in the center of town,” he said. “There’s cut grass, protection, food and water. Nothing bothers them. Why should they leave?”
The birds, which grow to about 15 pounds, have inefficient digestive systems, Hirchert said.
He has been working with urban geese populations in Wisconsin since 1999. The problem traditionally was concentrated in the southeastern part of the state but is spreading. Hirchert said Sparta is the most northwestern town to seek his services.
It isn’t just a problem in Wisconsin, either. Geese have settled in states from New Jersey to Washington.
Once common in Wisconsin, wild Canada geese were eliminated by the turn of the 20th century. Restoration flocks were reintroduced in the 1930s, and city hunting bans allowed the population to expand to nearly 1,000 by the 1970s, according to the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources.
The DNR estimates about 134,000 now live year-round in the state.
Other solutions
Sparta’s proposed ordinance would ban feeding waterfowl around the lake and a portion of the La Crosse River. Residents still would be free to feed birds along the river in a park below the railroad crossing.
The city of 8,600 in Monroe County also plans to let grass grow tall around the lake in hopes it will keep geese out of the parks. City workers might also coat the birds’ eggs with corn oil, which prevents them from hatching.
Police may issue some permits to allow hunting within the city during the regular fall goose season, Witt said.
Witt said city leaders decided against a more drastic and costly roundup, in which geese are captured and killed.
“We’re not looking to eliminate them, just reduce the total number,” Witt said.
Sparta’s actions may draw ire from those further afield, including the Canada Goose Hall of Shame, a Web site that spotlights “the cruel and vicious actions of certain communities and agencies toward Canada geese.”
The site’s list of “craven, cruel and cowardly communities” where geese have been slaughtered includes Rochester, Minn., Sheboygan, Wis., and Milwaukee as well as the state of Wisconsin as a whole.
The site suggests alternative methods, such as decoy birds of prey and other predators, flashing beacons, landscape modification, and birth control.
“We’ve been trying to figure out for three or four years what we’re going to do,” said McMullin. “No matter what you do, you’re going to have somebody angry at you.”
Reporter Chris Hubbuch can be reached at (608) 791-8217 or chris.hubbuch@lee.net.
