These Geese Will not be Cooked

Ryan Park in July, 2022

We've been writing about Foster City's Canadian-goose problem for years. The NY Times covered it in June. Here's the Chronicle's take: [bold added]

Welcome to Foster City, home to 24 parks and more than 160 acres of open space that collects some 300 pounds of goose poop a day.

Foster City has received national attention for its troubles with Canada geese. Each goose — the city estimates it has between 300 and 400 of them — can produce one or two pounds of droppings a day, turning a park into a minefield. The goose poop requires regular power washings and has contributed to high E. coli levels in parts of the local lagoon. During nesting season the birds can become aggressive, even chasing off small dogs and children.

Non-lethal solutions are being tried.

Earlier this month, Foster City took its most comprehensive action yet, with the city council approving a roughly $400,000 contract with a wildlife company to deter the geese at seven “high impact” parks. Starting sometime in the next month, the company will begin using drones, lasers, balloons and — eventually — dogs to scare or “haze” the birds. The contract, which is active through June 2026, approved nonlethal measures only.

Foster City residents and officials alike are waiting to see whether their latest efforts will make the geese think twice about nesting at a local park. Previous attempts have been mixed. When the city tried strobe lights, residents seemed more bothered than were the geese. Adding fencing around the lagoon kept geese out for a while, but the geese eventually found ways around it. Egg addling — shaking or otherwise damaging newly laid eggs to prevent the embryo from developing — keeps the population from growing too rapidly, but that doesn’t affect the living geese, which can survive for more than 20 years.

I don't have much hope that these methods will put a dent in the problem.

The geese aren't scared of us, though most geese still fly away when humans or dogs chase after them (I speak from personal experience). However, the cost of live geese patrols is prohibitively high. Robot hunters offer promise, but that solution is years away. Meanwhile, Foster City residents should keep looking down when they walk.