Environmental Impact Statement on Resident Canada Goose Management

If you live (or for recreation) in DC, along the Anacostia River (particularly the wetland areas on Kingman Island, Heritage Island and the Langston Golf course) you would undoubtedly notice the Canada geese, the resident Canada geese, the ones that won't migrate south for the winter and thus their populations almost exponentially increased over the last half-century. Nuisance is probably the right word to describe them. They salvage on the native wetland plant species to near extinction. I've worked with AWS to restore the wetland plant ecology by putting up hectares of fence exclosures to keep the geese from devouring the native wildrice and other wetland vegetation. We attempted to keep the population at a sustainable number by oiling the eggs (more on this at a later post). The effort is still on-going. The battle wages on between public hearings,the development of environmental impact statements and the humane society on how to deal with these Canada geese. Finally now the United States Fish and Wildlife Service has this new plan to control the Canadas.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today announced the release of a final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) that outlines various alternatives to reduce, manage, and control resident Canada goose populations and reduce related damages. Of the alternatives, the Service's proposed action will allow state wildlife agencies, landowners, and airports more flexibility in controlling resident Canada goose populations
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Wildlife officials estimate there are more than 3.2 million Canada geese in the United States. The plan, designed to cull that number to about 2 million during the next decade, will provide states with the option of assuming control over goose-reduction methods.

The federal plan will allow some hunting without federal permits. Any volunteers? I must warn you, these resident Canadas are aggressive. From personal experience, I almost got beaked in the head.