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FROM
Lohud.com
July 30, 3018
There are 200,000 Canada geese living in New York, according to the state
Department of Environmental Conservation.
What does that mean to you?
A lot of goose poop. Seemingly everywhere. You can’t take a walk in a park,
by a lake, river or beach, in a cemetery or almost any other large green
space without spotting crappy reminders that they honk among us.
A single goose can produce about two pounds of poop a day — that’s
400,000 pounds of goose poop produced every day in parks and lakes and
beaches across New York state.
“Large amounts of Canada goose fecal material on beaches, golf courses,
picnic areas, and walkways contribute to negative park patron experiences,
exposes park patrons to health risks, and can lead to beach closures,” DEC
spokesman Dan Parks said in an email. “In addition, Canada geese also cause
damage through their feeding activities and trampling.”
Aviation officials say geese present a hazard — actor Tom Hanks played
the title role in the film “Sully” about pilot Chesley Sullenberger, whose
plane made an emergency landing in the Hudson River after being struck by a
flock of Canada geese.
But how those geese are managed is a century-old controversy, one that has
involved celebrities, crosses municipal boundaries and goes from local
authorities all the way to the federal government.
A history of hunting
“You gotta know what you’re doing when you let something go,” said Tait
Johansson, naturalist-in-residence at the Bedford Audubon Society.
A century ago, there were no resident Canada geese in New York state. The
few that were here were “descendants of captive birds released by private
individuals in the Lower Hudson Valley and on Long Island,” according to the
DEC
Migrant geese would “leave in April and come back in October,” Johansson
said. “We used to have a gap in months when there were no Canada geese
here.”
Then, in the 1950s and ’60s, what was then called the State Conservation
Department intentionally released geese onto wildlife management areas north
and west of Albany to establish resident flocks for hunters.
By the 1990s, many considered geese a nuisance, and Clarkstown become a
fierce battleground in the War on Geese.
Charles Holbrook, then town supervisor, ordered the geese killed and the
meat shipped as food for the homeless. Activists were up in arms.
Actor Alec Baldwin, leading a protest at the Helen Hayes theater in Nyack,
challenged Holbrook to publicly shoot a goose himself.
“I would like to see Holbrook get on TV and start blasting away at the geese
for everyone to see,” Baldwin said then.
Holbrook replied that there were no geese at the Helen Hayes theater: “Maybe
they should have one of those meetings at town parks, where the kids have to
wallow in this stuff.”
Baldwin may have moved on to other causes, but goose meat is still on the
menu. Westchester County Airport routinely removes geese in the summer, when
the birds are molting and flightless.
“Removals consist of corralling the geese, placing them in crates, and
taking them to a USDA authorized processor who then donates the meat to food
banks in the Lower Hudson valley,” the airport said in a statement.
Federally issued permits
There is no legal rifle or shotgun hunting in Westchester County. Hunters
can go for deer with a bow but only in very restricted locations and under
specific circumstances.
If, however, a property owner can make a case that geese are a nuisance, the
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will grant a permit to kill geese — with a
shotgun, for example —with no regard to municipal boundaries or local laws.
There are at least 14 such “depredation permits” active in Westchester
County, according to a information from the USFWS obtained by lohud/The
Journal News in response to a Freedom of Information request.
The identity of many of the permit holders was redacted by USFW, citing
privacy concerns, but among them are a beach club, a golf course, the county
airport and a real estate developer in Yonkers.
Officials make the distinction between hunting and so-called wildlife
depredation, which is not restricted to seasons and carries its own set of
restrictions.
A statement issued by Westchester County Airport (HPN) specifies that when a
firearm is discharged at the airport to remove wildlife, “this is not
hunting.”
“Hunting is a recreational activity enjoyed by many and regulated by the New
York State Department of Conservation,” the statement says.
By contrast, depredation permits are issued by federal authorities and do
not allow the use of blinds, decoys or duck calls.
Despite that distinction, the DEC’s Kevin Frazier said that “Hunters in New
York harvest 50,000-80,000 geese annually.”
Claims of conflict
Officials insist that geese are killed when there is no other option.
The DEC uses “an integrated program of nonlethal methods that may include
education, habitat modification, harassment, repellents, and exclusion to
meet these goals,” Parks said. “When nonlethal methods prove to be
ineffective, lethal techniques including egg oiling (egg addling), and
taking of individual geese with shotguns.”
At Westchester County Airport, Wildlife Services (WS), a division of the
U.S. Department of Agriculture is tasked with the actual depredation and
management.
“Since 2012, WS and HPN Operations personnel have a 98 percent non-lethal
interaction rate with wildlife at the airport,” according to an official
statement, although “when necessary, USDA WS will also use lethal methods in
the removal of wildlife from the airport.”
That’s a problem for some animal activists, who note that members of the
state’s Conservation Fund Advisory Board — established by statute to advise
state agencies on plans, policies,and programs affecting fish and wildlife —
are card-carrying hunters, by law.
“At the time of designation, board members must hold a valid New York state
hunting, fishing or trapping license and have held one three years prior,”
the DEC’s website says.
That ensures a situation in which hunters are calling the shots, activists
say.
"Airport slaughters are big business for Wildlife Services: Killing birds as
a means of 'management,' rather than deterring them, ensures a constant
supply of revenue, as more birds always come in after others are wiped out,”
activist Kiley Blackman said in an email. “Killing birds at airports used to
only be done in extreme cases - now, due to Wildlife Services’ urging, its
the norm.”
Five miles or seven miles
“Canada geese are identified as the third most hazardous species to
aircraft” by the FAA, according to Westchester County Airport Manager Peter
F. Scherrer.
There were 13 documented plane strikes with geese at the airport between
1993-2012, six of which caused at least minor damage to the airplane.
Wildlife Services began removing geese from the airport in 2010 and, since
then, has taken 1,014 geese as of April, and none since 2015.
FAA’s guidance on bird mitigation advises a circumference of five miles
around the airport — in Westchester, Wildlife Services’ permit allows a
circumference of seven miles which takes them well across state and
municipal borders.
The Town of Greenwich, Conn. used to cull geese but moved to other methods
after a public outcry, according to Patricia Sesto, director of
environmental affairs.
Westchester County Airport, though, through its federally-issued depredation
permit, can and does manage Greenwich’s geese
“Westchester Airport does cull geese as well,” Sesto said. “They make
arrangements with private property owners,” but would need to get the
approval of municipal leaders “should any town properties be involved.”
Sesto said the airport has never come before the town board for the purposes
of goose depredation.
Greenburgh’s Paul Feiner said he’d rather not see birds killed, but that the
safety of passengers on planes should be the priority.
"Definitely, if it’s unnecessary I’d rather they not shoot birds,” he said.
“If it happens to be something that a plane could crash because it’s not
done, that would be a different story.”
But Ken Paskar, an aviation consultant and pilot, said “the airport, in my
opinion, does not follow the FAA guidelines on wildlife interdiction and
wildlife management.”
Paskar said airports are “supposed to hire a private wildlife management
specialist to develop a wildlife mitigation plan and then to actually
perform that plan.”
By hiring federal authorities to perform the work, Westchester County
Airport has created a situation devoid of oversight, according to Paskar.
“When Wildlife Services creates the plan they approve the plan,” he said.
“An independent company is supposed to do the work and then Wildlife
Services takes their plan and does the proper oversight.”
“You can’t check and police your own work,” he said.
That has enabled the airport to expand the borders in which it mitigates
goose populations, and allowed the airport to be used “as an excuse for
culling geese at, say, a park.”
“At the end of the day it’s the FAA’s responsibility,” Paskar said. “When
it’s convenient for the FAA they turn a blind eye.”
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