E-Mail This Article to a Friend Filthy beasts (continued)

According to MassWildlife biologist Heusmann, the practice of mass goose killing is highly unlikely in Massachusetts. "[Geese] are a nuisance, but they are not a public-health or safety threat," he argues. "If there was a proven link to a threat to the public health, or if they were congregating around an airport and threatening public safety, maybe it would be considered."

Heusmann’s position on the public-health threat posed by geese in Massachusetts is not universally accepted, and the public-health argument is, after all, the primary justification for removal given to the feds. The federal agency that issues permits for goose removal doesn’t take a solid position. "We leave that up to the local officials," says George Haas, a game-bird coordinator for the US Fish and Wildlife Service. "There’s mixed data available."

According to the MSPCA’s Hagopian, there has been no proven link between geese and threats to human health, though she wouldn’t recommend rolling around in their droppings. But geese-removal companies — a growing industry — cite studies linking geese to parasites and disease, and several New Jersey municipalities have taken action based on studies showing the tie between geese and giardia cysts, which can lead to parasitic infection and prolonged diarrhea in humans. As was the case with Lake Carmel, goose feces in ponds and lakes can trigger aggressive algae growth, which can damage water quality.

Given such health concerns — not to mention the nuisance factor — Heusmann’s assertion that mass geese killings are unlikely in Massachusetts may not hold up in the face of public support for their aggressive removal. Besides, the federal act protecting Canada geese also allows for their destruction through a permit process, making mass killings on Massachusetts soil a real possibility.

In 2003, the US Department of Fisheries and Wildlife issued 757 permits to kill Canada geese in 13 states; of those permits, 38 were issued in Massachusetts for very limited killings and destruction of eggs. Requirements for permits are low. "Basically, there needs to be a justification for it," says Haas. "A biologist involved must concur and buy into the recommendation, and there needs to be buy-in from the state, then we issue the permit."

In New Jersey, where the human population is dense, permits have been issued for large-scale killings. The US Department of Agriculture was permitted to kill 1000 geese at various New Jersey locations; Union County gassed 700 of them.

The sticky part for geese advocates is that the killing of full-grown birds actually works — and works well.

"I’ll tell you how effective it is," says Haas. "We had given the town of Kent a permit to do the same thing the following year. We got there and they only had 25 birds and there was no need." Five years later, Kent’s Tulipane says regular and very aggressive addling has held the goose population to a only a couple of dozen still living at Lake Carmel.

GeesePeace’s national director, David Feld, argues that the killing simply isn’t necessary, pointing to pilot programs in which well-managed addling, together with the use of dogs and other efforts, can rid an area of geese in a year. Such programs have been successful in places like Virginia’s Nassau County and Rockford Park, Illinois; Feld touts them as proof of success as he works to teach other communities how to move geese away from conflicts with humans.

"If there are no goslings, the mothers and fathers and aunts and uncles have no need to stay, and they will leave to find a safe haven to molt," Feld explains. During molting season, from late June through July, geese are flightless.

Hagopian says her program is aggressively trying to gain regional consensus for the GeesePeace model, but those aiming to keep their property goose-free have difficulty seeing past their own immediate problem. "People don’t want to hear that it’s going to take time, but there are places where the GeesePeace model has been used, and successfully," she says. "Our mission is to resolve conflicts, and we’re looking to increase participation." Hagopian criticizes MassWildlife and US Fish and Wildlife for relying too heavily on "lethal solutions" to wildlife conflicts. The big worry for animal advocates is that the problem will go without proper, large-scale management until the public outcry for a solution supports the practice of killing large numbers of geese — and the permits are relatively easy to get, once that support is there.

Still, few municipal-parkland and private-property managers are quick to push for federal permits to kill geese other than by addling — both from a genuine desire to treat the birds humanely, and from the knowledge that such actions are too controversial for comfort.

Michael Hosmer is the self-proclaimed "goose guy" on the Esplanade, where a resident population of 300 geese had grown intolerable for the active and organized Esplanade Association, a homeowners group. This spring, he’ll lead a group of volunteers on a three-mile walk along the Boston side of the Charles River to find goose nests. They will cover not-yet-developed eggs with corn oil. The program, modeled on one from GeesePeace, is sanctioned by the MSPCA, the Charles River Conservancy, the state’s Department of Conservation and Recreation (which owns the Esplanade), and even People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

"It’s akin to spaying or neutering a dog or cat," says Hosmer. "Last year we addled 215 eggs and only nine goslings were born. It’s to stabilize the population." Goslings born at any given site will try to come back to lay their own eggs there, so every generation of goslings not born on the Esplanade is one less looking to return someday.

But how much stabilization really occurs? According to MassWildlife’s Heusmann, you "must remove 85 percent of the eggs several years in a row to level a population, 90 percent to reduce it."

Because addling alone doesn’t solve the problem, various methods of chasing away the geese are also being employed. These methods, combined with federal restrictions on harming geese, are fostering the growth of a unique breed of businesses — and an altogether new breed of public employee.

In 2002, the City of Cambridge recognized its first four-legged "employee of the year" at a City Council ceremony. Daisy, a trained Border collie, was purchased by the city for $3500 in 2001 for the express purpose of ridding the Fresh Pond Golf Course of the several hundred Canada geese roosting there.

"Daisy was bought by the city, trained in South Carolina, and lives with a staff person," says Richard Rossi, Cambridge’s deputy city manager. "Although she’s an animal, she works and works hard, and she was great at dealing with a tough city problem, so we wanted to recognize that."

Chris Murphy is the owner of Atlantic Goose Management, one of many companies sprouting up to assist property owners with goose headaches through the use of Border collies. The collies, with their highly developed herding instincts, are the only breed to earn the blessing of the MSPCA; other dogs will attack and bring a "prize" back to their trainer. Murphy recently contracted with the town of Arlington, where a few hundred Canada geese have staked their claim on the shores of Spy Pond and the adjacent Little League diamonds.

"We use a lot of different methods," says Murphy, whose business is growing with contracts from municipalities and office parks. "We hold egg-oiling workshops, and do a lot of work around ‘do not feed’ policies and pyrotechnics [to scare them off]. With a good program, Canada geese can be made uncomfortable enough to abandon the place altogether."

But according to Heusmann and Haas, such practices solve the geese problem only for an individual location. Yes, you’ve chased them away, but they do go somewhere. Cambridge’s Rossi believes the geese that plagued Fresh Pond before Daisy arrived had been chased from the grounds at Belmont High School. Where did they go when Daisy chased them from Fresh Pond? It’s possible they’re the same geese Murphy is now chasing away at Spy Pond, in Arlington.

In fact, in some states, goose-removal companies have been accused of following the geese they chase away in order to land new contracts wherever the geese end up. Murphy concedes that the protections on resident Canada geese make his a growth business — intensive Border-collie visits can run $500 per week in severe cases, $100 or so for a periodic visit.

The idea that geese just fly to the nearest suitable habitat when chased away is entirely anecdotal, but Heusmann and Haas say it’s likely. GeesePeace points to a recent study, which found that some geese fitted with transponders actually did return to Canada. But Heusmann describes a game of goose ping-pong between a hotel and an office park in Wakefield, and says he hasn’t seen any credible evidence that the geese will return to the Canadian migration patterns of their ancestors.

Esplanade geese now number a few dozen, down from nearly 300. But the numbers further down the Charles, along Soldiers Field Road and the fields surrounding Harvard Stadium, have drastically increased, as have those at Magazine Beach, on the Cambridge side of the river. So as the Esplanade celebrates its poop-free playground, Watertown and Brighton could be on the early edge of a growing problem. "It may be we are pushing them to other communities," agrees Hosmer. "Our goal was to solve the problem here. There really needs to be a regional effort."

Recently, the MSPCA’s Hagopian says, the City of Boston agreed to expand the Esplanade program to include the parks in the Emerald Necklace, a step toward a real regional effort.

"What we’re trying to avoid is letting the problem get so out of control that the federal government comes in and gasses them, like at Lake Carmel and other places," says Hagopian. "Events like that tear a community apart."

Bill Doncaster can be reached at bdoncaster@excite.com