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June 12, 2006
Goose people' flock to lake to keep birds alive
A Follow Up to our Geese Story!
Group claims success with nonlethal efforts to ease waterfowl problem
Federal officials will move to round up the flock of Canada geese at Collins Lake sometime in the next two weeks. But the U.S. Department of Agriculture workers may find their nets empty, if the efforts of volunteers with kayaks, dogs and air horns continue to succeed.
The group has been patrolling the water and nearby Collins Park for a week to warn away the birds.
The coalition of animal activists, retirees, and average people said they will do anything legal to save the birds. They want the village of Scotia to change its decision to round up and suffocate as many as 150 geese.
The village said even though killing animals with carbon dioxide gas is unpleasant, too many birds live at the popular recreation site and leave their droppings behind. Officials say a federally sanctioned ``cull'' is the only answer.
And yet, after a week of clapping, yelling and paddling by the humans, the birds seem to have moved on.
``Where are the geese?'' Scotia resident Laura Brown said this week, smiling on the shore of the lake as her husband, Matt, paddled around in a white kayak. He chased a single bird, which took off the moment Brown slid his kayak into the water at dusk.
``See that? They know. They're scared of the boats already,'' said Ward Stone, senior wildlife biologist for the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Stone was at the lake on his own time to watch.
The group, which has numbered up to 30, began its campaign last weekend, when several dozen geese were scared away. Some people walked the shore with leashed dogs, others clapped and waved their arms yelling ``go! go!'' and others paddled after the birds on the water.
The idea is to let the birds know that the lake is no longer a goose paradise.
It seems to be working...
The scores of geese usually seen at dusk were gone by the end of this week. The narrow beach was empty, and the shallows near a parking lot showed no signs of goose droppings, which had been plentiful.
The ``goose people,'' as they are called by village officials weary of them, said they want to show the village was wrong when it said nonlethal means to control the geese would fail.
``If something's in your way, destroy it. That just seems so backward and barbaric. There has to be another way,'' said Beryl Dickson, a yoga instructor who has been going to the lake with her husband, Paul.
The Schenectady resident rejects the criticism that ``outsiders,'' even those from neighboring communities, have no business intervening in a village matter. Scotia Mayor Michael McLaughlin has said as much and insists that ``most'' Scotia residents support killing the geese.
``We do business here, we work here, we come to the park and we enjoy this place. Of course it's our concern,'' Dickson said.
And while no one has conducted an opinion poll, Scotia residents are clearly divided on the issue, even within households.
Michelle Turner, 36, and husband Greg, 37, both agree that too many geese have left too many droppings. As they watched their son's T-ball game off Schonowee Avenue, the couple disagreed on how to solve the problem.
``They shouldn't kill them. Why do they have to do that?'' asked Michelle, who stays at home with the couple's two children. Greg, an estimator for a construction company, said he had no problem with the village's plans.
Both agreed the issue is a hot one in their village of 7,900 people.
Stone, who is respected for his expertise on wildlife and his outspoken nature, said he supports the volunteer effort to shoo away the geese. And while he had offered lukewarm support for the culling plan months ago, he openly criticized the scheme this week, calling it ``appalling.''
``What kind of a world do we live in that when animals get in our way, we can kill them and throw them in the garbage?'' asked Stone, noting that volunteers' early success shows killing the birds is unnecessary.
If the geese molt, or shed their flight feathers, somewhere else, they won't come back this summer, he said.
``But (the volunteers) have to keep it up,'' or other geese will slowly come back.
McLaughlin said this week he has been besieged by phone calls and letters from across the country, exhorting him to change his mind. He read off recent postmarks on the goose-related mail: ``Here's one from Kansas, Texas, California.''
But, he said, the outcry will not sway him. It is a local issue decided by a local board of trustees that acted publicly and in good faith, he said. The meetings were sparsely attended. And no one opposed the decision until long after it had been made.
McLaughlin said the village will make no effort to stop the volunteers, so long as they continue to obey local laws.
He even acknowledged few geese may be left for the ``harvest.'' But that doesn't mean victory for the volunteers, which he called ``the human border collies,'' in reference to the breed of dog used by some communities to scare away nuisance geese.
``If the harvest is unsuccessful, we'll have the same problem next spring and we'll have to just try again next year,'' he said.
Posted by sue at June 12, 2006 10:42 AM