Many Geese A-Laying Lifeguards’ Cleanup Means Most Beach-Users Don’t Get A Gander At Birds’ Calling Card, But Problem Is Growing

Most summer mornings, before children flock to Post Falls’ beach, the lifeguards take rakes and shovels to the sand.

They scoop up the greenish piles left behind by the feathered flocks of geese that also frequent the beach.

One day when the lifeguards got to the task late, Jerry Rodgers noticed the difference.

“You couldn’t take three steps,” said Rodgers, owner of Challenger Day Care. Rodgers brings a few dozen children from his day care business to the beach about four times a week.

“We said, ‘Watch where you step,”’ he said.

The population of Canada geese is increasing on the Spokane River and in the surrounding area, bringing with it an increasing poop problem.

Most of the geese appear to be coming from Cougar Bay, said state wildlife specialist Brian Helmich.

Helmich said the number of nesting platforms occupied by geese in the Cougar Bay area has increased from 10 in 1993 to 20 this year. Along the Spokane River, the number increased from three platforms in 1993 to nine this year.

The goose population is increasing nationwide, he said. And often, he said, they congregate in urban areas because they like the lawns.

“They’re a terrible problem and they’re a health hazard, and nobody’s doing anything about it,” said Ray Grannis, who lives on the Spokane River. “There’s nothing nice about dirty old goose poop.”

Grannis took his complaint to the Post Falls City Council and the Idaho Department of Fish and Game, but so far he’s about the only person to speak up.

“It hasn’t been a major enough issue to come across my radar screen,” said Post Falls City Administrator John Hendrickson. “I’m not sure we have jurisdiction over geese.”

Parks Director David Fair recognizes it as a problem, and that’s why he tries to have it cleaned up regularly at the beach.

“Some people think it’s dogs that have left the deposits, but it’s geese,” he said.

At North Idaho College, geese and other waterfowl have taken up residence at the north end of the beach. The groundskeepers regularly clean up after them.

“We have a whole bunch of people who love to sit and feed them all day long and love the company the geese and ducks give them,” said Michael Halpern, NIC’s maintenance director. Dogs are a far bigger problem than geese, he said.

As far as keeping the geese away, “I don’t know if there’s anything out there that really works,” Fair said.

He’s heard about a grape-smelling spray that can be applied to the ground that repels geese, but it’s expensive and has to be applied regularly. Swans also scare off geese because they’re bigger.

Helmich said one golf course used large blow-up swans to spook the geese.

Some people actually want more geese.

The city of Coeur d’Alene, for instance, asked the Department of Fish and Game to install nesting platforms along the river by its Harbor Center offices.

“We counted 49 geese the other day. They were the most awesome sight I’ve seen,” said Judy House, who works for the city legal department. “We kind of like it. We like the wildlife out here.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo