Township Explores Options to Control Geese Population

Lacey Township is exploring options to eradicate the escalating population of geese at its lakes.

“It’s obvious we have geese in our township,” Recreation Director James Wioland said. “They’ve found the conditions quite lovely and choose to stay.”

There are two types of geese in the township—migratory geese that come in the winter season and resident geese that are around all year, he said. Nevertheless, they create an unhealthy environment for the lakes and communities as one goose can create up to one pound of feces per day.

After extensive research, Recreation Director James Wioland found that a combination of techniques would prove to be most effective.

There are three levels of controlling the geese population:

• Education: updating signage to reflect the township’s ordinance prohibiting the feeding of geese; providing educational documents to families within a certain proximity to the waterways so they understand the challenges that feeding geese creates.
• Harassment: use a repellent that makes the grass bitter; launch a buoy with balloons; modify the environment by allowing the grass to grow; install fencing and wood cutouts; pyrotechnics; release border collies at the populated area; employ a fake eagle.
• Population Control: egg and nest searching treatment—a service locates the eggs and nests and eliminates them; capture—during the first four to five weeks of geese life, they can’t fly. The vendor would capture those geese and euthanize them.

“I strongly recommend [egg and nest searching treatment] at this point because it will start to help eliminate the population down the road,” he said.

Egg and nest searching would not work immediately but it is a long-term solution while capturing would be helpful in the near future, Wioland said.

“I think not doing eggs and nest would be foolish,” he said.

Wioland has spoken to the Ocean County Parks and Recreation Department as well as Mount Laurel and municipalities in Bergen County, all of which use a combination of techniques.

“There’s no one method that will be solely effective, he said. “Everything works for a short period of time before the geese learn to adapt.”

The county has used a combination of primarily egg and nest searching and capture but also education and other harassment techniques. They’ve had the most success with egg and nest searching, Wioland said.

Mount Laurel is a township that has a flock similar to Lacey’s—large and uncontrollable, Wioland said. The township did an immediate capture and caught close to 120 geese. Since then, they have maintained the population with dogs.

Wioland is still in the process of soliciting cost proposals but dog services can range around $600 per month and begin in mid-March, ending in mid-August. Egg and nest searching is generally a five to six week process and costs around $2,400. Capturing can range from $6,000 to $6,200, which includes the vendor’s prep work to prepare the geese as food for zoos.

“This is a long time coming,” Committeeman Sean Sharkey said. Sharkey showed support for both the egg and nest searching as well as capture techniques.

Committeeman David Most has taken a walk down Deerhead Lake and finds the geese problem serious. The geese population is escalating all along the coast, he said.

“They’re definitely an overpopulated species,” he said. “That feces causes a real serious conduit of disease with pathogens and stuff like that.”

The Manahawkin Lake was polluted and could not be used for years, Most said. But with geese remediation, they were able to open it this past year.

“I definitely agree that we have a problem but starting tomorrow your phone is going to be ringing off the hook about euthanizing birds,” Committeeman Gary Quinn told Wioland. “We have to act.”

The township has put so much money into the lakes, including the dam that was built, he said. “It’s really criminal that we can’t have the kids over there enjoying it the way it should be enjoyed.”

It comes down to the health and safety of the residents versus the birds that have infiltrated the town, he said.

Longtime resident and appreciated the township’s efforts in taking this step, he said.

“For too many years it has been glossed over,” Zehl said. “This is only part of the problem with the lakes. We could kill every one of the geese off and we’ll still have the problem with the grass and everything else happening with the lakes."

All drainage goes into the lakes, which affects its water quality, he said. Just this past summer, was closed for 13 days. “That hurt me.”

A program should be in place within the first couple weeks of March, Wioland said.

Mayor Mark Dykoff asked Wioland to come back to the next committee meeting on Thursday, Feb. 23 with a proposal.