Should Fredericksburg Take Steps to Control its Wild Goose Population?
About 700 Canada geese call the city home.
By Adele Uphaus
MANAGING EDITOR AND CORRESPONDENT
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Fredericksburg City Council on Tuesday directed staff to gather information about measures to control the city’s wild goose population.
Council heard a presentation from the city’s police department during Tuesday’s work session. The department is recommending “control and stabilization” of the wild goose population through a process called “egg addling.”
City Manager Tim Baroody told Council that staff began looking into the situation following a phone call from Charlie McDaniel, who expressed the problems geese cause on his property in lower Caroline Street.
Police estimate there are about 700 resident Canada geese in Fredericksburg and said the department receives about 50-60 calls per year about aggressive birds or birds causing traffic hazards.
That number of calls is “kind of high” when compared with other localities, Deputy Police Chief Betsy Mason said.
There have been three motor vehicle accidents involving geese in the past two years.
About two-thirds of the goose-related calls come from Central Park, where there are retaining ponds and grassy knolls that create ideal living quarters for geese. Another 14% of calls come from Riverfront Park and City Dock; 12% from properties near the river; and 8% from neighborhoods in the Plank Road area.
Geese live for 10-25 years and tend to stay within a five-mile radius their entire lives, according to the presentation. They have no natural predators, and goslings who are born to resident geese rarely migrate.
Female geese begin laying eggs in their fourth year and can lay as many as 12 eggs in one clutch, though the average is about five or six.
Geese can produce between one and three pounds of fecal matter daily, according to the presentation, and some business owners in Central Park pay for power washing on a weekly basis to remove goose poop and feather.
The birds can also be aggressive, especially during breeding season, which begins in March.
Canada geese are a protected species, but the government also recognizes that localities need to control the population, police said Tuesday. Local governments—and third parties such as private businesses—can apply for a no-cost “egg depredation” permit.
Police said the permit is “automatically guaranteed” upon application and with the majority support of landowners where the depredation activity will take place.
The recommended method is called “egg addling.” This involves numbering each egg in a nest and then covering it with oil, which clogs the pores and stops the embryo from developing.
Fairfax County police have employed egg addling to control the county’s wild goose population since 1998, Fredericksburg police said. The method is considered humane and environmentally friendly and is recommended by Geese Peace and the Humane World for Animals (formerly the Humane Society).
Councilors said they do have concerns about how the goose population affects the spread of avian flu and the discharge of nitrates into the water system, but that they also want to explore all options, especially if there is an impact to city funds.
Mayor Kerry Devine also noted that there is a distinction between public and private property, and that Central Park landowners can apply for an egg depredation permit independently.
“We do have city parks that we work hard to maintain,” she said.
But ward 2 representative Jon Gerlach said there is “no way” he will support the city applying for a permit.
“I think we’re only talking about city property and frankly, I don’t see that much of a problem,” he said. “I really don’t. We live in the middle of nature. I don’t want to go to war against nature. I can’t support this.”
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