Portland enlists trained dogs to help with Canada geese issue
The Canada goose may look gorgeous on postcard printing, but the species’ droppings are a problem in Portland. To deal with the issue, the city is reaching out to Geese Guys, a wildlife management company that uses Border Collies to shepherd the geese elsewhere.
The Charbonneau Golf Club in Wilsonville used Geese Guys this year to reduce its flock of 1000 geese to about 16, solving an issue which saw members who had played golf at the club for decades stop playing, according to Chris Bensel, golf director.
Now, Portland Parks & Recreation is looking into using the company to deal with the abundance of geese in the city. Tom McCall Waterfront Park would be the location of the pilot initiative, and the cost would be paid by Human Access Project.
At a recent event, the company needed to spend $1,000 to rake the goose droppings off the grass before participants in the yearly Big Float event could get into the water. It took six hours to get things cleaned up. According to experts, Geese leave behind 2-3 pounds of fecal matter every day per adult – an amount that can pile up quickly when large numbers of the bird are massed in one area.
The issue is that both geese and humans enjoy grassy spaces by rivers and lakes, and geese have few predators in urban areas.
The Charbonneau Golf Club in Wilsonville used Geese Guys this year to reduce its flock of 1000 geese to about 16, solving an issue which saw members who had played golf at the club for decades stop playing, according to Chris Bensel, golf director.
Now, Portland Parks & Recreation is looking into using the company to deal with the abundance of geese in the city. Tom McCall Waterfront Park would be the location of the pilot initiative, and the cost would be paid by Human Access Project.
At a recent event, the company needed to spend $1,000 to rake the goose droppings off the grass before participants in the yearly Big Float event could get into the water. It took six hours to get things cleaned up. According to experts, Geese leave behind 2-3 pounds of fecal matter every day per adult – an amount that can pile up quickly when large numbers of the bird are massed in one area.
The issue is that both geese and humans enjoy grassy spaces by rivers and lakes, and geese have few predators in urban areas.