Update on Goose Poop

You may have seen a KTTC news report on efforts being made to reduce the amount of goose poop runoff entering Silver Lake and the mighty Zumbro River. About this time of year I get several calls about the geese as their population grows to the 30,000 range.

The calls are of two kinds, a) What are you doing to control and get rid of these nuisances? and b) Why are the corn vending machines empty so often when I bring visitors to feed the geese?

To the latter, we have in the past allowed the vending machines to be in the area but do not have direct responsibility for their upkeep. The park board has elected to have these machines removed as part of the Silver Lake/Zumbro River clean up effort.

Over the years several groups, including the environmental commission, have met to discuss controlling the goose population. Since we are in the Minnesota flyway and most of the geese are migrating they (and crows as well, by the way) are protected species and we are limited in what we can do. Efforts to control the resident population have been on-going with the assistance of the DNR.

The council authorized a grant application to the Minnesota Public Facilities Authority for a matching grant to help pay for a native vegetative shoreline buffer around Silver Lake to provide filtration capacity to reduce the coliform bacteria entering the lake from goose and other pet waste. We were granted $275,000 from the PFA. The other half of the project funds will come from the storm water management fees we pay for with our water utility bill.

I’d attended a planning meeting with staff , representatives of two consulting firms specializing I these kind of projects, and other interested parties on December 18. An overview of the project with an on-site walk-though of the Silver Lake facility were the highlights. The objectives include keeping the lake periphery accessible to fishermen, walkers, picnickers, etc while making the lake and periphery less accessible to the geese. The hope is to make the lake area less attractive to the migrating birds reducing their population which would also affect their impact on the surrounding area – school grounds, golf courses, farms etc.

I believe that the view of the lake will be enhanced with the plantings. It’s going to take a few years to develop as planned so we need to ask for some patience. The original plan was to have the initial plantings completed by June but because of commitments to the water ski show folks for July 4th , the rowing club, and others, the latest target for initial planting completion will be around August.

I’ll try to keep you updated as we proceed and, of course, if you have any questions, need for more detail, comments or whatever – feel free to contact me directly. Expect to see regular reports from the media as well.

Thanks,

Bob