Goose Round-Up at County Park Cancelled

The Canada geese at Silver Lake Park will get a reprieve from the death sentence that hung over them during their annual molt, at least for this year. The prognosis for next year may not be as positive.

The Whatcom County Parks Department was considering having the geese killed as its first attempt at managing human/geese conflicts at the popular county park. However, based on my conversation with the USDA Wildlife Services, the agency authorized to kill the geese, which are protected under the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the county needs to be more proactive in attempting to control geese through non-lethal control methods before having the geese rounded up and gassed.

In an email dated June 13, I was advised by the parks operations manager that the county would not execute the geese this summer. However, the tone of the email was decidedly negative regarding the possibility of successful nonlethal management next year, suggesting that the county may go through the motions of considering nonlethal control methods in order to meet the legal prerequisites for geese slaughter.

The email from the Parks Department stated as follows:

The demonstrable negative impacts from these geese at Silver Lake Park remain.

These impacts — which have worsened over the year as the resident flock has grown by 250% or more -- include daily deposits of goose feces on the park’s swimming beach, picnic area, boating docks, and children’s play areas. At an average of 1.5 pounds of droppings per bird, the flock now at Silver Lake Park is depositing 300 pounds or more of feces in the park and the lake every single day.

We do hope to have in place an effective hazing and harassment program with volunteer dog trainers and trained herding dogs over the remainder of the year. We continue to review the efficacy of other non-lethal goose management methods, but most are not cost-effective and/or unsuitable for Silver Lake.

We remain concerned that the flock of 200+ birds will have grown larger by this time next year, with even greater negative impacts on Silver Lake Park, on our neighbors, and on the lake itself. 

Silver Lake Park’s 5-acre day use area comprises a small part of the park’s 412 acres. The play areas, boating docks, picnic areas and picnic lawns, and swimming beach in those 5 acres are considered desirable recreational resources for the public, which we do not want to see degraded.

Executive Louws responded to this email by asking the Parks Department to keep good records of nonlethal management efforts. He advised that if data indicated these efforts were not successful, he would likely authorize the removal/elimination of a good portion of geese next year.

As I have previously written, the successful management of geese requires a multi-prong approach and community input. Herding dogs may not, by itself, be successful. The County needs to consider other options, most notably habitat modification. Whatcom County needs a comprehensive wildlife management plan based on sound conservation principles and community values.