Tag: management

Too Much Success for Canada Geese?

  • Canada Geese take flight. Photo by Wyman Meinzer, courtesy of the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Canada Geese are about as common as the green lawns they like to hang out on. But at one time they’d almost disappeared from the region. Thanks to successful wildlife management efforts, the goose is back, and now the question is how best to manage a success story that some say has been too successful. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Gunderson has more:

Transcript

Canada Geese are about as common as the green lawns they like to hang out on. But at one time they’d almost disappeared from the region. Thanks to successful wildlife management efforts, the goose is back, and now the question is how best to manage a success story that some say has been too successful. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Dan Gunderson has more.


In 30 years, the giant Canada goose was on the verge of extinction, but the species has made a comeback that amazes biologists. There were just about enough for a gaggle when humans stepped in to help in the late 1960’s, now numbering in the millions today, the goose is a wildlife management success story that won’t stop.


“We’ve spent millions and millions of dollars to bring the population back.
Now it’s high and it’s eating everything in sight.”


Standing on the edge of a waist high soybean field on his Minnesota farm, Chad Jetvig points to a slough about a quarter mile away. It’s obvious where geese feasted on tender young soybean plants early this summer, leaving large bare spots in the field.


Jetvig says he’s always accepted some crop loss from geese as a part of farming among the prairie potholes of western Minnesota, but he says the amount damage is no longer acceptable.


“I would say in the past two years in particular, but it’s been getting worse each year, we’ve started to see huge areas. Just on this one single farm at two hundred acres that’s over 40 thousand dollars right just out of our pocket. That’s a lot of money.”


And thousands of farmers in the Midwest and Northeast U.S. have similar stories.


This year and last, Chad Jetvig has gotten a permit to shoot geese eating his crops, but he says it’s an exercise in futility.


“We came out here and shot one time and the next time you even drive by they’re gone. They’d even know the color of the pickup. If this one blue pickup we’re using came around, they seen that thing, whoosh, they’re gone.”


Only to return as soon as the coast is clear. Those keen survival instincts are one reason for the goose population explosion. There’s also plentiful food provided by farmers like Chad Jetvig, and lots of wetland nesting sites.


There are an estimated 2 million giant Canada geese in the upper Midwest and Northeast that’s far more than biologists like Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, goose expert, Steve Maxson think is ideal.


“I think a lot of biologists are wondering just how high this population can go. It’s already exceeded their wildest dreams I think and it seems even in the face of intense hunting pressure to be increasing in most areas. I guess the bottom line is we just don’t know how high this population can get.”


Biologists rely on hunting to keep many wildlife populations in check, and the Canada goose harvest has steadily increased along with the population. But Maxson says simply allowing hunters to shoot more birds is not the answer. The birds quickly learn how to avoid hunters. Then there’s the eastern prairie goose that nests in northern Canada and migrates through many states in the region. The eastern prairie goose population is much smaller and less robust than the giant Canada, and biologists fear expanded hunting could destroy the species.


The U-S Fish and Wildlife Service draft environmental impact statement due out this fall will offer several population control alternatives. They range from no action, to targeted hunting in areas where geese are in conflict with humans, to extreme measures such as, destroying nests and eggs. Steve Wilds is the Fish and Wildlife Service regional migratory bird and Chief. He says it’s critical a workable plan come out of this process. If not, he fears future management decisions will be political, not biological.


Wilds says the future of the giant Canada goose is at stake.


“So that they’ll continue to be recognized as a tremendous, beautiful part of our natural landscape and yet not something that’s going to be doing so much damage people start thinking of them as vermin rather than really neat critters.”


The Fish and Wildlife plans to take a public input on its goose management plan early next year. Steve Wild says it will be at least a year before any final decision is made on how the Canada goose populations will be managed in the future. For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Dan Gunderson.

City Ignites Green Space

Many cities create parks to try to incorporate green space into theirurban landscapes. But maintaining them can be expensive and laborintensive. Now, one city has created a unique solution–addingnaturalbeauty while saving money. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tasya Rosenfeld has the story:

Wilderness Area to Be Torched

Last summer a violent storm struck down nearly half a million acres of
trees in and around the boundary waters canoe area. The boundary waters
is a pristine wilderness area in northeastern Minnesota. No motorized
vehicles are allowed and the U-S Forest Service does minimal management,
leaving it in its natural state. But now officials are worried about
the fire danger, and they’re planning some measures that normally aren’t
allowed. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Stephanie Hemphill has
more:

The Business of Fish Management

  • Similar scenes can be found up and down the eastern shore of Lake Michigan.

Now that summer’s officially here, beaches around the region are packed with
tourists and locals. But this year many beaches have been plagued with
unwanted visitors: tens of thousands of dead fish in the water and on the
sand. It’s a revolting sight-and smell – but in fact, the fish play an
important role in the lakes…and present an ongoing management challenge to
biologists. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson explains:

The Comeback of the Wood Frog

Scientists are concerned about a world-wide decline in amphibian
populations. But one scientist has been bringing a frog back to its
native habitat. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports
the Wood frog is once again thriving in an area where it was pushed out
more than 75 years ago:

Wild Horses on the Auction Block

In the early seventies, Congress ruled that the Bureau of Land
Management had to manage wild horses and burros because the horses had
historical significance. But that federal protection created a
population explosion. So the government has maintained an adoption
program to thin out the population. Over the next 6 months the program
will be at various sites in the Great Lakes Region. The Great Lakes
Radio Consortium’s Tom Scheck reports:

Managing the Cormorants

Wildlife officials around the Great Lakes region are struggling with
the issue of double-crested cormorant populations. There are questions
about the impact of the birds on sport fish and commercial fisheries.
New York State has asked the U-S Fish and Wildlife Service to approve a
new controversial plan for managing cormorants in eastern Lake Ontario.

Deer Hunt Controversy

With deer populations on the rise throughout the country, many communities are looking for ways to curb their growth. Near Cleveland, some park managers have asked for a permit to shoot deer in a controlled hunt, claiming overpopulated deer herds are damaging park vegetation. But local deer advocates strongly disagree and so far they’ve been able to block the deer hunt in court. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Ley Garnett reports:

The Prairie Pioneer

For almost forty years, Dr. Robert Betz searched the railroad tracks and
back roads of the Midwest for remnants of the nearly extinct tall-grass
prairie. Along the way, he helped define and popularize a new
environmental movement on the rise throughout the Great Lakes and the
country—a movement called ecological restoration. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Alex Blumberg has this report:

Schools Test I-P-M

We usually hear about Integrated Pest Management – or I-P-M – as itrelates to agriculture. In that setting, it’s a way to help reduce oreliminate the amount of pesticides farmers use on their crops. But theconcept of I-P-M is catching on in other places too.As the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Wendy Nelson reports, somestates are taking Integrated Pest Management from the cornfields, righton into the classroom.