Galesburg City Council is opposed to a charity harvest to control the city’s geese population.
The Council made that clear this week in an informal straw poll taken during a work session.
Parks and Recreation Director Elizabeth Varner and State Director for the USDA Wildlife Services Scott Beckerman presented the council with options for dealing with the geese population.
Varner and Beckerman say that a charity harvest would be the most effective technique, but all Council members cited resident feedback and humanity as why they opposed the harvest.
The council directed staff to continue with methods such as egg oiling and deploying cutouts that scare away geese.
Varner says some reasons for culling the goose population are an accumulation of feces and feathers, aggressive, nuisance conflicts, reduced water quality of the lake, and increased algae growth.
Some Council members, like Larry Cox, wanted to try the egg-oiling for a few years and then possibly budget for a charity harvest in the future.
Sarah Davis was also against the harvest, although she wants to support nature and people’s ability to enjoy it without “excessive interference.”
Bradley Hix attended the meeting over the phone and didn’t express an opinion.
Canadian geese are protected by state and federal law but there are provisions in the law to allow the management of the birds when they create conflicts.
Beckerman says where a gosling learns to fly is likely to be where the bird returns to for its 10-15 year life span.
Varner emphasized that it’s important that the public not feed the geese as that encourages them to an area, and is also unsafe for the geese.
One technique discussed was a goose hunt but it was noted that option was voted down by the Council in 2015.
Beckerman said it’s difficult to estimate how many geese Galesburg has until early June, but communities typically take action when conflicts arise.