Early this week, I went to Basil purposely looking for the “resident” Ross’s
Goose and the “resident” Egyptian. According to this article in the local
newspaper, their days, along with hundreds of Canada, are numbered. It’s not
pretty! The article reads:
Geese and ducks congregating by the dozens in the grassy areas of ballfields
and stopping traffic as they cross Three Springs Road, common sights in recent
years at Basil Griffin Park, may not be so common anymore.
Warren Fiscal Court on Aug. 13 approved a request from county Parks and
Recreation Department Director Chris Kummer to enter into a contract with the
U.S. Department of Agriculture to manage and help control the goose, duck and
domestic bird issues at Griffin Park.
The one-year, $13,000 agreement with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health
Inspection Services and Wildlife Services divisions is needed, Kummer said, to
address a growing problem.
The bird population in the park “has been causing a negative impact and
potential risk to aviation flight paths, causing traffic collision risk, and
disrupting land management and facility operations,” according to the documents
that accompanied Kummer’s request for the USDA agreement.
Kummer noted that Griffin Park is in the flight path for the Bowling
Green-Warren County Regional Airport, meaning a growing bird population at the
park has led to a growing problem for aircraft.
“The airport is having some issues,” Kummer said. “We have an overpopulation of
birds, and that has led to several collisions with cars.
“There’s a public health component to it as well. The overpopulation is
unhealthy for the birds, and our facilities are affected on the cleanliness
side.”
Such overpopulation and the resulting problems is something the USDA deals with
routinely, according to District Supervisor Keith Stucker of the Kentucky
office of USDA’s Wildlife Services.
“In city parks, that’s very common,” Stucker said. “It can certainly be a
problem when you have overpopulation. It can be very hazardous. We can
recommend management strategies to reduce that likelihood.” The agreement
presented to fiscal court by Kummer said the management strategies include live
trapping with relocation, live trapping with euthanasia, nest and egg removal
and hand catching.
The first phase of the management strategy, to start right away, will be to
install a goose corral to capture geese unable to fly.
The next phase, scheduled for the spring of 2022, will involve nest and egg
removal and removal of any overly aggressive geese.
Finally, excess geese will be rounded up during the 2022 summer molt.
While the agreement is for one year, Stucker said USDA personnel will make
recommendations about environmental manipulation that will help keep the bird
population under control long-term.
The objective of those recommendations, according to the text of the agreement,
is to enable parks department employees to develop a “more wildlife
damage-resistant environment” at the park.
Kummer emphasized that the geese and ducks, an attractive feature of the park
for many visitors, won’t be going away entirely.
“We’re still going to have birds there,” he said, “but there won’t be an
overabundance. That’s just unhealthy.”
Rickey Shive
Warren County
Sent from my iPad
