http://www.timescolo...e-cull-1.602329Goose-related crop damage, water pollution and feces on public and private green space have posed problems for years, but April 2014 is the earliest that any new tactics can be tried, such as stepped-up addling when the eggs have been laid, said the CRD’s Mike Waters.
Ottawa has strict protocols to protect the minority of local geese classed as migratory, Waters said. The management strategy gets sticky when about 1,000 geese are migratory and thus protected by Ottawa, but only avian experts can tell which is which, Waters said. That rules out any notion of a goose hunt. If it comes to a cull, some non-migratory geese would be rounded up and euthanized with gas.
An estimated 6,000 geese are blamed for $300,000 worth of damage to local crops along with much mess, some of which is blamed for warnings against swimming in Glen Lake earlier this summer.
I don't follow the reasoning of "The management strategy gets sticky when about 1,000 geese are migratory and thus protected by Ottawa, but only avian experts can tell which is which, Waters said."
It should be simple come December. Any Canada goose still hanging around is non-migratory and can be culled.
By the way, were the geese not a problem out at the Sooke Lake reservoir a few years ago?