Important Meeting Tomorrow: Protect the Lake Merritt Geese!!!

[Guest guest]

July 26: Meeting to discuss Lake Merritt's geese

 

Oakland's community meeting on geese management will be at 7 p.m. Thursday at

the Lakeside Garden Center, 666 Bellevue Ave., Oakland. To read the Lake Merritt

Goose Management Study, go to www.oaklandpw.com/Page794.aspx.

 

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Read the full story:

 

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2007/07/25/BAGF0R6DIP1.DTL

 

OAKLAND

A honking pile of poop

A ton of goose droppings each week has city looking at pens, egg control,

coyotes

 

Carolyn Jones, Chronicle Staff Writer

Wednesday, July 25, 2007

 

The issue is poop. A ton of it. Each week at Lake Merritt.

 

Downtown Oakland's bucolic nature reserve has such a serious overpopulation of

Canada geese -- which drop about a ton of poop a week on the 122-acre park --

that the city is considering introducing dogs to herd the geese into fenced

enclosures, buying a goose poop Zamboni and spraying the goose eggs with mineral

oil to prevent them from hatching.

 

In addition, park users and bird experts have suggested that the real answer

might be coyotes, the primary predator of Canada geese.

 

" No one's talking about shooting the geese -- we don't need more gunshots in

Oakland, " said Jennie Gerard, chief of staff to Oakland City Councilwoman Pat

Kernighan. " But people cannot lie down on the lawn because there's so much poop.

It's an aesthetic issue. It's gross. "

 

Kernighan and Councilwoman Nancy Nadel are hosting a community meeting Thursday

to gauge the public's response to goose poop and goose poop abatement measures.

City staff, ornithologists and other experts will talk about geese and poop, and

the public will be able to submit suggestions.

 

Lake Merritt isn't the only Bay Area spot overwhelmed by the honking, 10-pound

fowl. Lake Elizabeth in Fremont, Bishop Ranch in San Ramon, the College of

Alameda and nearly anywhere else that provides grass and water are home to

ever-increasing flocks of Canada geese.

 

Not long ago, the geese were nearly extinct in the Bay Area. But over the last

few decades they've gradually replenished their numbers, thanks to international

protections, lack of predators and a certain obliviousness to cars, people,

pollution, noise, lights, dogs and cats.

 

They're so well adapted to city living that their population throughout the U.S.

is expected to double by 2010, from 220,000 to nearly half a million, according

to Oakland's Canada Goose Management Study.

 

" Without predators, this is what happens to any bird population that's

well-adapted to its habitat, " said Eli Saddler, conservation director of the

Golden Gate Audubon Society and a Lake Merritt neighbor.

 

Last week, federal wildlife officials shot two coyotes in Golden Gate Park after

they reportedly attacked two pet dogs. Saddler stopped short of saying coyotes

should be introduced to Lake Merritt to feast on the geese, but did say that

predators already living there should be encouraged.

 

The primary problem with the Canada geese is the tourist birds. About 250 Canada

geese live at Lake Merritt year-round, but in the late spring up to 1,400

migrating geese stop at the lake to molt on their way to cooler climates.

 

When they're molting, or shedding their feathers, the birds can't fly, so they

need to stay somewhere with ample grass and algae, their favorite foods, and

still water they can waddle into. When their new feathers grow in, around late

July, they head south.

 

At Fremont's Lake Elizabeth, which had a goose population similar to Lake

Merritt's, city officials bought a herding dog to chase the birds away from

soccer fields and into the lake.

 

Luke Skywatcher had a successful seven-year stint in Fremont before retiring.

Because of budget cuts, the city couldn't afford another dog, so it has hired

dog consultants -- specially trained goose-herding dogs that come in when the

problem's especially bad.

 

The city also started rubbing mineral oil on the goose eggs. In the past 10

years, only two goslings have hatched at Lake Elizabeth, compared with about 15

a year at Lake Merritt.

 

" Our goal is zero hatch, " said Chuck Canada, Fremont's deputy director of

recreation services. " Canada geese are one thing that make Lake Elizabeth a very

special place, but our maintenance staff simply could not keep up with the

(poop) production. "

 

Fremont's anti-goose tactics have worked. Since introducing the dogs and mineral

oil, the year-round goose population has stayed about the same but the migrating

population has dropped by nearly 50 percent.

 

Geese aren't stupid, however. In Fremont they've just moved to nearby golf

courses and office parks. But at least the soccer and baseball fields, walking

trails and lawns are relatively free of excrement.

 

In Oakland, dogs are one option the city is considering. The dogs would herd the

geese into fenced enclosures that the birds couldn't escape until their feathers

grow in.

 

Dog hazing is another possibility. Harassing Canada geese is legal as long as

the geese are not touched. The city might allow dogs to chase and bark at the

geese as a way to discourage them from returning to Lake Merritt.

 

Another option is to buy a Nature Sweep, a 500-pound vacuum billed as " the

natural solution to a natural problem. " The Zamboni-like tractor collects goose

feces and collects them in a hopper for later composting. Oakland will

test-drive a Nature Sweep next month, Gerard said.

 

The city's also considering replacing the short grass around the lake with long

grass, which the geese don't like as much. Ultimately, the City Council will

have to approve funding for any goose poop program in Oakland.

 

But discouraging geese on a city-by-city basis might not be the best way to

address the problem, Saddler said. If every city starts coating goose eggs with

mineral oil, the species might head back toward extinction, he said.

 

A better solution, Saddler said, would be to provide more suitable habitat for

the geese, such as restoring more wetlands away from urban areas. He also

suggested that cities start enforcing laws prohibiting people from feeding

wildlife, and taking more steps to encourage predators.

 

" When we start tinkering with these things, we're dealing with something that's

already out of balance, " he said. " We need to ask ourselves, are we really

fixing the problem or are we just shifting it somewhere else? "