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July 15, 2015
▼ INVASIVE SPECIES
Inside
Canada Geese: Fair or fowl?
Not native to the Okanagan Valley, geese are well adapted to living with humans
KEVIN PARNELL
Planning excellence Lake Country’s Integrated Sustainability Plan has received an award from the Planning Institute of B.C. ...............................
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Clean-up crew Members of the Tween Lakes Resort have taken it upon themselves once again to tidy up Oyama Channel, that runs between Kalamalka and Wood lakes. ...............................
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Flyers ■ Brand Saver ■ Bulk Barn ■ Coopers ■ Country RV ■ Jysk Linen & Furniture ■ Rona ■ Safeway ■ Shoppers Drug Mart
Canada geese: The namesake of our country and a true piece of Canadiana or a nuisance water-fowl scattering feces on beaches causing water quality issues. However you view the abundance of Canada geese in and around the Central Okanagan, one thing is for certain: It’s not their fault that they are here in the Okanagan setting up nests on balconies or roof-tops and doing their business on area beaches. No, Canada geese are in the Okanagan thanks to the work of humans. By definition they are an invasive species, not native to the Okanagan Valley or anywhere else in Southern B.C. They were brought here in the 1960s by well-meaning government wildlife agencies as well as conservation groups. “It dates back to the 1930s when the conservation of water-fowl was a big concern in Canada,” said Kate Hagmeier, a biologist who wrote her masters degree on migratory birds including Canada geese and whose company is contracted to help control the Okanagan goose population. “By the 1960s there was a well-intended program run by some agencies and not-for-profits to introduce geese into the west so we would have more aesthetic (water-fowl) as well as some hunting opportunities.” It may have been
CONTRIBUTED
A PAIR of Canada geese near the Skaha Lake marina.There are leg tags on many of the 2,500 Canada geese in
the Okanagan, used to monitor their travels. For Interior Health’s perspective see story page A3. well-intended at the time, but the consequences of introducing an alien species to the Okanagan are far reaching. Thousands of dollars are spent each year trying to control Canada geese, who have no natural predator in the Okanagan and have become habituated to humans because people love to feed wildlife, even though it’s the worst thing for them. As well, even though Canada geese are a migratory bird that should be leaving its home for the winter months, flying to warmer climates, the Canada geese that live in the Okanagan don’t even
Aly
know where it is they are supposed to migrate to because they were never taught by their parents. So instead they stay in the Okanagan year round. “There are 11 different sub-species of Canada geese in North America and four or five of the species were brought to the region,” explained Hagmeier. “It was actually a terrible thing to do. The sub-species have bred together to form original stocks. That’s why they can be different sizes because in the east geese are huge and in the north they are small. There were no adults brought in to teach them
their natural migratory habits and they are out of their native area so there is no natural features to trigger migration.” In a word, it’s a mess. And a lot of that mess is on area beaches where goose droppings are cleaned up on daily basis using hundreds of staff hours, only to have to come back the very next day and do it all over again. But despite some changes in what parts of the Okanagan Canada geese are congregating, making it seem as if the population is growing, the opposite is in fact true. The Canada Goose population has flat-lined
in the Okanagan as some adults are dying off while every jurisdiction in the Okanagan works together to try and limit the population growth. “If goose management was simple, no one would be having this conversation,” said Hagmeier. “This is an issue throughout the Okanagan Valley. If it was simple, it would have been dealt with already.” ••• Back in the day, Oyama resident Frank Latchford worked at Vancouver International Airport where among his duties was wildlife control. He and his colleagues would use live
ammunition and pyrotechnics to create a hunting atmosphere on the airfield, keeping it clear for planes to land. Another technique was using green lasers to move animals and waterfowl. Now retired in Oyama, Latchford still uses the green laser to move geese around. As part of his nightly ritual, he shines the laser over Kaloya Park point, moving a huge gaggle of geese out onto the water and south. But everyday the geese are back. “It’s frustrating because it’s so hot and the water levels are going down and you cannot go into that park. It stinks to high heaven. Our grandkids and the neighbor kids are getting spots and have had pink eye from swimming there.” Latchford says the number of geese in Kaloya Park is substantially more than in past years. He has counted 225 of them this year and says there were maybe 70 or 80 in past years. Kaloya is a regional park and the Central Okanagan Regional District (RDCO) has four full-time staff members assigned to maintenance of the north zone parks, including all four RDCO parks in Lake Country: Reiswig, Kaloya, Kopje and Okanagan Centre Safe Harbour. Staff spend between two to four hours every
SEE GEESE A3
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