Sault Ste. Marie works to battle a major goose problem. Here's what is being done about it.

Sault Ste. Marie city staff are currently investigating and developing a goose management plan after grappling with challenges caused by local geese.

Councillor Angela Caputo initially raised the idea at a council meeting in mid-July. She has asked city staff to research and develop a goose management plan aimed at exploring different options and weighing the costs of controlling geese in the area.

Caputo explains that geese are starting to overrun many of the city's picturesque waterfront amenities, including the boardwalk, Bellevue Park, and Clergue Park. 

"One day, I took my daughter out for a walk on our boardwalk. We noticed a cruise ship and she wanted to get closer and see it. The closer we got to the boardwalk, the more we could not avoid the goose droppings. There were about 60 geese that we had to just walk through. They were quite aggressive to me and to her. She's only two years old."

Caputo describes the animal's behaviour as "unacceptable," explaining there is a growing cost to the city in terms of both time and money.

"We had a run that had over 600 athletes participating in it over our boardwalk. Our staff had spent over seven and half hours the previous day making sure everything was clean. They took the sweepers out, cleaned the paths for the runners and by the next morning when the race was being run, it was completely covered in goose droppings," said Caputo.

She says many residents and visitors have started to avoid these attractions due to aggressive geese or goose feces.

"Being a northern municipality, we deal with a really harsh winter. So when these amenities are available for us to be able to use, I would really like to be able to see people being able to enjoy them.rather than millions of dollars being poured into these spaces and they're only occupied by geese," said Caputo.

Several cities, including Sudbury, Ottawa and Toronto, have implemented goose management plans. Caputo mentioned that these cities have reported up to a 50 per cent reduction in geese after the streategies were implementted.

James St. John, the superintendent of horticulture for the City of Greater Sudbury, explains that geese are still causing challenges for the city,as well as for farmers, golf courses and anyone with well-maintained grass. Sudbury's goose management program involves hiring contractors to conduct site visits aimed at scaring off the geese.

"We incorporate a few different hazing techniques to scare them off land back into the water… we try to push them back into the water so that they're not defecating on the grass," said St. John.

"They use a combination of canines to scare away the geese. They also use bangers, which is just a loud noise maker, and they also use lasers targeted at the usually dominant geese which will help scare them away."

St. John says the program has reduced the number of geese in the city, but it's hard to deal with the issue without a larger management program at the provincial or national level.

"It is a migratory bird and without trying to keep their numbers from increasing, it's still a catch-22 situation because the population over the last 40 years has increased almost exponentially for Canada geese. So without some sort of intervention, I don't see it getting too much better."