ST GERMAIN, WI (WSAU-WXPR) – A lake district in St. Germain is working the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources to reduce the lake’s population of Canada geese.
John Eckerman is the chairman of the Lost Lake Protection and Rehabilitation district. He says the number of geese living near the lake has steadily increased in the past 3 to 4 years and that those geese produce so much poop that local parks have become unsanitary. “Come to the ball park, we’re not doing this just because we don’t like geese. It’s a safety and a health issue. Come to the ball park and you can’t walk anywhere without walking on feces.”
The program to remove geese involves oiling goose eggs to prevent them from hatching, and killing adult geese while they’re molting and can’t fly.
Because geese return to the same nesting sites year after year, these methods would limit the number of geese living on the lake in coming years. Brad Koele, a wildlife damage specialist with the Wisconsin DNR, says everything is done humanely. “Currently, we only authorize USDA to do the round up to make sure geese are removed humanely and utilized.”
Still, not everyone is pleased with the plan, and some people are speaking out against it at town board meetings.
A similar goose-removal project at Minocqua’s Torpy Park drew protestors two years ago.
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