Vancouver Park Board asking residents to report Canada geese nests to help with population control | 24CA News

Spring in Vancouver is usually a stunning time … for those who let the cherry blossoms overhead distract you from the piles of goose droppings underfoot.

‘Tis that point of yr when Canada geese are seemingly in every single place. To assist fight a booming inhabitants of the birds, the Vancouver Park Board is asking residents to report nests so employees can swap out viable goose eggs for frozen duds — a course of generally known as addling.

Hoping to focus on eggs, the board is asking folks to determine the situation of any nests they discover, which may usually be noticed round close by houses and even on roofs. Reporting will be performed by calling 311 or sending an e mail to geese@vancouver.ca.

According to the park board, the birds have no pure predators, and the inhabitants is booming. Compared to different species, they produce lots of excrement for his or her dimension and defecate on common each 12 minutes.

Not solely do their droppings create slipping hazards, Canada geese additionally wreck fields and lawns by munching on new grass, dig holes round sprinkler heads to entry water, pollute seashores and swimming pools and destroy juvenile salmon habitat by consuming sedge grass in native estuaries. 

They also can act out aggressively at folks and pets.

The board says addling is “one of the most humane methods of population control,” and as soon as swapped, the goose settles again on the nest, finally leaving when the eggs fail to hatch.

“This is the only way to do it,” stated Tony Williams, a biology professor at Simon Fraser University.

Dana McDonald, the environmental stewardship co-ordinator with the Vancouver Park Board, says employees are skilled to addle cautiously with out upsetting the nesting geese. 

She provides the dud eggs are actual goose eggs which had been frozen from the earlier nesting season. 

“It disturbs them a minor amount because, in nature, they’re likely to have unsuccessful clutches,” stated McDonald.

Long-term planning

Williams stated one of the simplest ways to really curb the inhabitants is to have a regionally-co-ordinated, long-term plan as new geese will proceed to maneuver into the identical territories.

Metro Vancouver, the governing physique overseeing regional parks throughout the Lower Mainland, says it doesn’t presently have any applications aimed toward lowering the Canada goose inhabitants.

A spokesperson for Metro Vancouver stated in an e mail that park guests shouldn’t feed, disturb or method the birds.

McDonald says her group is engaged on a administration plan for the Vancouver Park Board with suggestions that spotlight the necessity to set up a regional physique driving goose administration. 

She says Vancouver Island’s Capital Regional District is a superb instance of 13 municipalities coming collectively to implement a complete administration plan. 

“We understand that geese don’t recognize the jurisdictional boundaries between … [municipalities] in the Lower Mainland,” McDonald stated. 

‘Got it actually good’

McDonald says Canada geese within the Metro Vancouver space arrived within the Sixties and 70s and by no means left. 

“[They] moved from where they normally migrate to here, and the climate is quite mild … [after that] they didn’t re-establish migratory patterns,” she stated, including the problem with geese is amplified as they keep right here all yr spherical. 

She says an absence of predators and a perfect habitat have helped the residential geese inhabitants flourish.

“The geese have got it really good … The population in the City of Vancouver is more successful and will grow more quickly than a population in a more rural area,” she stated.

McDonald provides a pair of geese could have 5 to eight eggs a yr, with the surviving goslings happening to have their very own nests the next yr. 

“So each year that we don’t prevent those eggs from hatching is the year we will have additional mating pairs.”

Canada geese can dwell, on common, over 20 years. Each yr, the federal authorities approves permits for culling and for utilizing predators to scare away the geese.

According to the park board, addling is supported by the B.C. SPCA and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

Park board employees are federally permitted to hold out the exercise.