Agency To Haze Large Influx Of Crop-Damaging Flocks Plans Made For More Research, Land Management To Accommodate Geese
The federal Fish and Wildlife Service plans to use increased hunting and hazing to disperse huge flocks of crop-damaging geese wintering in the Willamette Valley and western Washington.
The hazing, or scaring, of the birds will involve everything from cannons to dogs to all-terrain vehicles.
The plan also envisions more research, better management of public lands for geese, and acquiring additional land or easements to accommodate the wintering flocks.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has scheduled two public meetings to gather comments on the plan, one in Albany on Dec. 5 and the other in Woodland, Wash., Dec. 4.
Surveys have shown that the number of geese wintering in western Oregon and Washington has grown five-fold since the 1970s, says Susan Saul, a public affairs officer for the wildlife agency in Portland.
The Oregon Legislature was told this year that farmers are wintering more geese than any time in history. Estimates are that about 165,000 geese spent last winter in the valley, and 250,000 are expected by the year 2000.
The Legislature ordered the state Department of Agriculture to make a study of land and crop damage done by wildlife and to report to the 1999 session.
Solving the problem is tricky because some species of geese are protected, while others are growing rapidly. Seven subspecies winter in the Willamette and Columbia river valleys.
However hunters, so far, are not heeding the call.
Just three weeks before the start of an expanded season intended to reduce Canada goose populations and crop damage, fewer than half the expected number of hunters have taken the required written test.
About 2,200 hunters have taken the test, far fewer than the 5,000 to 6,000 anticipated. The exam tests their knowledge of regulations and ability to identify various geese subspecies.
It’s also uncertain how many of the thousands of acres of private farmland in the valley open to goose hunting for the first time in 15 years will be readily accessible.
“Wildlife managers have difficulty maintaining populations of dusky, Aleutian and cackling Canada geese without also increasing numbers of the abundant Taverner’s, lesser, Vancouver and western Canada geese,” the service said in a press statement.
The plan is intended to achieve healthy populations of all goose species while reducing crop damage.
Saul, the Wildlife Service spokeswoman, cited one problem: Development in the Portland and Salem areas has taken up what used to be wintering grounds for the geese.
Hunting has been tightly controlled in the Willamette Valley for years to protect dusky geese that winter in Oregon and Washington.
With hunting restrictions in place, populations of other subspecies have mushroomed.
xxxx NUMBERS Surveys have shown that the number of geese wintering in western Oregon and Washington has grown five-fold since the 1970s.