Droppings Dip as Geese Take Off

She once counted 1,600 Canada geese grazing on her green soccer field. Not only did the population upset the gentle ecosystem of the park, but the geese’s slippery droppings, which amount to as much as three pounds a day, can fell even the most nimble of soccer players.

Clearly, Central Park’s Supervising Park Ranger Judy Felber had to act. Nearly five years ago she hired Luke, a McNab herding dog, and the bird count plummeted.

The charming Luke, something of a celeb in these parts, has done such a smashing job around the 450-acre parkland that several hundred geese have flown less than a mile away to the California School for the Deaf, where they have settled on the football field.

Supt. Hank Klopping doesn’t intend to kill the birds, but he wishes the federal and state governments would declare “these beautiful birds pests” and move them elsewhere.

Naturalists once believed that the long-necked Canada goose was nearly extinct. Its return has been nothing short of an environmental success bordering on disaster. In recent years, Canada geese have overtaken the pigeon as Americans’ greatest winged nemesis. The geese have multiplied so rapidly at parks, golf courses and corporate campuses that they’ve become a major environmental nuisance and political hot potato.

A protected bird under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1916, the Canada goose cannot be killed or have its eggs shaken or oiled to prevent hatching without a federal permit. With more than 3 million such birds in the U.S., the government wants to pare down the population by a third. It also wants to rid itself of the problem, handing over responsibility to the states. As with the birds, the problem isn’t going away, it’s just moving somewhere else.

The state of California neither sought nor wants to take over the Canada goose controversy. Requiring states to take annual Canada goose counts “is quite a burden” said Dan Yparraguirre, senior wildlife biologist for the state Department of Fish and Game.

With no additional funding, he said, “It’s totally unrealistic. If it were such a small problem, why hand it off to states?”

The easy pickings of lawns and ponds not only lure the herbivores, but have also kept them in residence. Plentiful food has kept them from migrating.

Some Canada geese remain migratory birds, but others have established themselves as resident geese. In fact, migratory Canada geese, those beautiful birds that fly in “V” formation overhead, are finding it increasingly difficult to forage for food, having been crowded out by their lethargic cousins.

In the Northeast, which has been coping with the overpopulation of resident geese for several decades, the federal government has granted some permits for collecting and gassing birds during molting season.

Every permit to cull has been met with an animal rights lawsuit. Communicating by Web sites and cell phones, protesters frequently try to block the killings. In Seattle, animal rights activists called the director of parks a murderer, picketed his home and posted his home phone number all over the city.

Opposed to the killing of birds, John Hadidian, director of the urban wildlife program for the Humane Society of the United States, favors egg addling (the shaking of eggs), chemical repellent, herding dogs, and the removal of eggs and nests.

In the burgeoning city of Fremont, where city parks serve as backyards for condo dwellers, Central Park’s Felber moves slowly and with the public’s consent. She has posted signs against feeding the waterfowl and circulates brochures explaining the problem. Vegetation was cut back to thin out nesting. Picnic areas frequently need to be reseeded. During molting season, Felber fences off part of the lake to discourage the birds. (Although they can fly over the fence, they don’t.)

It’s Felber’s “faux predator” Luke, she says, who mostly keeps the birds in check. With a federal permit to spray mineral oil on goose eggs, the park has stopped much of the growth, but still must cope with its uninvited guests. Canada geese may live 15 to 20 years, and spend most of their waking hours eating and defecating -- every three to four minutes.

As the geese have adapted, so have some humans. For $40 an hour, Goosebusters’ Jan Murphy and her dogs will herd geese away from Bay Area golf courses and parks.

Historically, the Canada goose migrated from Canada to the rural South. By the early part of the 20th century, the geese had nearly been hunted into extinction. But in 1935, when the federal government outlawed live decoys, hunters released handicapped Canada geese into the wild. Through the years, various governmental wildlife agencies have resettled the birds, either to increase their numbers or to rid a community of a problem. The intentions were good; the results often were not what they anticipated.

Once the birds escaped to the cities, they no longer had limitations.

Much of Northern California’s problem began in Reno. Concerned about the abundance of geese close to the airport, government agencies relocated the birds along the California coast. “They became very well established up there,” said U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service migratory bird coordinator Brad Bortner. “Very well established.”

“By fertilizing grass in parks and creating lots of playing fields,” explained waterfowl biologist Yparraguirre, it gives the geese “no motivation to leave.” He likened it to wild birds “taking advantage of a plate that humans set.”

Although some complain about the 1,500 Canada geese that spend the summer at Oakland’s Lake Merritt, city refuge naturalist Stephanie Benavidez doesn’t object.

“We’re part of the Pacific Flyway,” she explains. “Humans overrun other species and their habitats. Let’s put it in perspective.”

Realistic solutions are hard to come by. At the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, officials sometimes joke that when one community solves its Canada geese problem, that just means a call from a new area code.

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Times correspondent Donna Horowitz contributed to this report.