Geese Cause Health and Safety Concerns at Forks Community Park

Editor's Note: The following letter was written by Forks Township resident Ed Eardley.

An increase in the resident population of Canada geese in Forks Community Park is creating a big mess and with it big problems for park users and local residence alike. With the geese comes feces…lots and lots of feces (a goose produces a pound of droppings per day). There are serious health and safety concerns related to geese feces. These include concerns about our young children who play on the sports fields; families out picnicking or enjoying the parks facilities; runners, walkers and bicycle riders on the bike paths slipping and falling. The abundance of feces (equivalent in size to medium sized dogs) spoils our otherwise clean park and frequent aggressiveness of the geese creates a concern for our youngsters. There are also serious health concerns because many different bacteria, viruses and parasites can be present in bird droppings and in their feathers as well as diseases carried by the birds themselves.

The boom in resident geese is hardly unique to Forks Community Park, for reasons such as mild winters, lack of predators, and reduction of wetlands geese have become the top local nuisance animal in the Mid-Atlantic States. Many towns, after spending millions to build or rebuild local park systems have them destroyed in a few short years by geese who decide to take up residence.  Although most people find a few geese acceptable, problems develop as local flocks grow and the droppings become excessive. Typically towns don’t react in time, they see a “few” geese living in the park as a sign that they’ve created a comfortable natural environment. Without action the problem very quickly gets out of hand. Fifty geese this year, (creating 50-pounds of feces per day) will be 150 next year…and 300 the next. By this time it is next to impossible to rid the park of the pest.

They typically don’t respond when “asked” to leave. Federal law is very restrictive when it comes to eradicating geese and there are always the “Activists” who chant and wave signs about the geese having rights too. In the end, the local government surrenders to the geese and their activists; the park is given to the geese to use as their cesspool, and the local residence stop using it. Think about the next Forks days, sitting on the grass waiting for the fireworks to start and your three-year-old child is playing with goose feces and rubbing her eyes.

It’s ironic that when we go for our morning walk around the park, that I have to leave my small dogs at home (even though we always clean up after them) and then have to spend five-minutes cleaning the geese feces off of our shoes. Steps must be taken now to rid our park of this pest before the problem grows and becomes completely unmanageable.