Getting the drop on geese
Banging pots and pans. Constructing clever decoys. Releasing dogs. Spraying repellent. Pyrotechnics. Paintballs.
You name it, and those who run Valley parks and municipalities have tried it to chase resident Canada geese out of the area.
The waterfow can lend an elegant touch to local lawns, but they leave behind a decidedly inelegant problem for those concerned with public health.
Each adult Canada goose produces up to 1 1/2 pounds of droppings per day, according to the state Game Commission, a mess that has escalated along with Pennsylvania's steadily climbing resident goose population.
"If left unchecked, goose concentrations become high enough that their fecal matter contaminates lakes and ponds where people swim," said commission spokesman Jerry Feaser. "Also, it's an unsightly mess."
In past years, the fowl issue has caused swimming areas, including the beach at Crooked Creek Park in Bethel, to close following alarmingly high E. coli readings in the lake water.
It has also inspired municipal leaders to launch an array of anti-goose offensives, to varying degrees of success.
At Burrell Lake Park, the solution to the goose problem was as simple as a strip of plastic.
Sam Febbraio, of the Lower Burrell parks commission, had been through hours of research on the available options, from expensive scare tactics to traps: "all kinds of ideas that didn't work," he said.
Finally, three years ago, he took the advice of an old farmer: Put a fence around the lake.
A bit of investigation with a video camera told Febbraio that geese resting around the lakeside at night would, if threatened, just hop into the lake. While they can fly, he said the geese preferred not to lift off at night.
So the city installed orange plastic netting, 2 feet high, around the lake's one-third-of-a-mile perimeter, to discourage geese from choosing that area to nest. The cost was less than $300.
The result?
"The problem is gone," Febbraio said, "... knock on wood."
Cheswick also turned to fencing as a goose-control method. Last fall, the borough added gates and extensions to an existing fence around Rachel Carson Park to keep the geese out.
"When people keep the gates closed, it's OK," said Borough Secretary Andrew Bock.
A handful of area parks depend on hunters to keep the waterfowl invasion under control. In-season hunting on migratory game birds is allowed in some parts of Northmoreland Park in Allegheny Township and Crooked Creek Park.
"As for control, there's not a lot you can do without approvals," said Wayne Johnson, Westmoreland County parks coordinator.
State law changed in January to allow property owners and managers to destroy nests and addle eggs in spring months. However, the birds are otherwise protected by federal regulation.
And in Northmoreland Park, the largest in Westmoreland County, looking for individual nests could be a tedious chore.
"Goose nests can be up to a half-mile from the water's shore," Johnson said. "You could spend half your life walking around looking for them."
In Oakmont, the goose situation improved after borough council paid Capture Co., a wildlife control agency based in Eighty-Four, $4,000 to make the birds feel unwelcome.
Dominic Monpani, owner of Capture Co., said he relies primarily on scare tactics: loud sounds, "whistler and boomer" pyrotechnics, barking dogs and paintball gun noise.
However, he admits that spooking geese doesn't solve the larger problem of their soaring population in this part of the state.
"All you can do is chase them away," he said. "The problem goes from my house to yours."
The population of resident geese in the state, about 300,000, has been steadily climbing for years, but the distribution of geese varies by a few factors, said Craig Swope, a wildlife biologist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Western Pennsylvania office.
Fluctuations could have something to do with the time of year, as geese molt and nest in different areas. Johnson, of Northmoreland Park, described the current molting stage as a "low period" for goose sightings.
Additionally, geese could be spreading themselves out among more territory options as sprawl and development bring about more of the manicured lawns and reclaimed natural sites they love.
"Geese are highly adaptable to human areas," Swope said. "We humans create an ideal situation for geese."
Finally, on an individual site basis, the presence of geese can be affected by altering prime fowl attractions. While geese are known for "site fidelity," he said, disruptions in the supply of ready resources could send them packing.
"They are looking for water and short grass," Swope said. "Take access to those away, and they will look somewhere else."
