Talk of the Town - Whitley County

(Talk of the Town photo by Jennifer Zartman Romano) Though beautiful creatures, the Canada geese create problems for businesses and landowners. The Tippecanoe Watershed Foundation will be holding workshops on how to manage geese populations locally. Above, a large flock of geese swim near the south shore of Loon Lake last summer.

By Lyn Crighton

The Tippecanoe Watershed Foundation has concerns about lake and stream pollution in the three-county area of the Tippecanoe watershed due to the overpopulation of Canada geese.
Within the past 20 years Indiana’s Canada goose population has grown to almost 120,000 birds. The increase in small urban and suburban retention ponds, the high reproductive success and the low mortality of the Canada goose subspecies found in Indiana all contribute to the growing population size.
Congregating geese can cause a number of problems. Damage to landscaping can be significant and expensive to repair or replace, while large amounts of excrement can render swimming areas, parks, golf courses, lawns, docks, and patios unfit for human use. Since they are active grazers, they are particularly attracted to lawns and ponds located near apartment complexes, houses, office areas and golf courses. Geese can rapidly denude lawns, turning them into barren, dirt areas.
Geese are particularly aggressive during breeding and nesting season. Their behavior can cause problems around businesses when geese attack and nip at workers and customers.
What can landowners in the watershed do about this overpopulation? Hunting is one solution; another is destroying nests or oiling eggs to prevent hatching.  But two especially helpful solutions that everyone can do include reducing habitat for the geese and stopping artificial feeding.
While many people enjoy seeing Canada geese, problems can occur when too many geese concentrate in one area. Typically, landowners unknowingly cause the problem by creating ideal goose habitat. Geese are grazers and feed extensively on fresh, short, green grass. Add a permanent body of water (lake, water retention pond, subdivision lake(s), golf course water hazard(s) or water gardens) adjacent to their feeding area and you have the created the perfect environment for geese to set up residence, multiply and concentrate. Geese, including their young, also have a strong tendency to return to the same area year after year. Once geese start nesting in a particular place, the stage is already set for more geese in successive years.
The problem is further exacerbated when well-intentioned people purposefully feed geese. Artificial feeding of geese tends to concentrate larger numbers of geese in areas that under normal conditions would only support a few geese. Artificial feeding can also disrupt normal migration patterns and hold geese in areas longer than what would be normal. With an abundant source of artificial food available, geese can devote more time to locating nesting sites and mating.
Breeding pairs begin nesting in late February and March. Egg-laying begins soon after nest construction is complete. Female giant Canada geese lay one egg every day and a half, and the average clutch size is five. Incubation of eggs begins after the last egg is laid and lasts 28 days.
Geese can cause a great deal of localized damage if many young are hatched in one area. After hatching, goslings are incapable of flight for about 70 days, so the young birds and their parents will graze near the hatching area for that time. Adults also molt their flight feathers near the end of June, rendering them flightless for 15 to 20 days. Geese leave large quantities of feces and molted feathers, which are considered health risks to humans.
The Indiana Department of Natural Resources will present Canada goose management seminars in March. The seminars will cover various aspects of Canada goose management, including relevant laws, basic biology, and methods to control goose damage. A demonstration on the proper techniques for egg and nest destruction will follow. Adhering to proper techniques is vital—if eggs are broken or completely removed from nests, the females will just lay another clutch of eggs.
Federal rules allow landowners properly registered at https://epermits.fws.gov/eRCGR/geSI.aspx to complete Canada goose egg and nest destruction on their own property. Registrants must provide a summary report of their Canada goose nest destruction activities to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service by October 31 each year. Failure to report can result in privileges being revoked for the forthcoming year.
Nearby seminars will be held March 22 at the Salomon Farm Visitors Center in Fort Wayne and March 23 at the Potato Creek State Park Nature Center near North Liberty. All seminars run from 9:30 a.m. to approximately noon. All interested landowners, managers of corporate campuses, golf course or park employees, and the general public are invited. For more information, contact the Tippecanoe Watershed Foundation at (574) 834-3242.