For the past few weeks I have driven past a pair of Canada geese along a busy street in Winnipeg. As the days progress, I watched with growing eagerness, knowing that in 4 short weeks there would be a pile of yellow fluff balls waddling through the ditch.

   Eventually there would be a group of adult birds playing nanny to dozens of baby geese. It is a wonderful sign of spring, especially after our horrible long winter. Today, I saw that "my" goose had hatched her eggs and she was now protecting six baby goslings. (See attached picture). Excitedly I drove home, ready to share the news with my family and friends (who'd also been watching this particular goose) and I saw this...

 On May 21, 2014 CJOB Winnipeg reported this article: 

    A Winnipeg group is doing its part to get control of the goose population on Kenaston Boulevard.

   It’s the fourth year for the Urban Goose Working Group, and this year they have removed over 15-hundred eggs from nests in the Kenaston area.

   The eggs are frozen at first, then brought to the dump. Spokesperson Jim Leafloor tells CJOB some may look at the practice as cruel, but he says human safety is priority one…

   “They way we look at it is that there are risks to motorists on Kenaston Boulevard and I guess if we didn’t deal with the geese that are causing accidents on that roadway then we’d have potentially more injuries and more damage to vehicles. That sort of thing.”

   Leafloor says a few years back, there would be times where up to 500 geese would be on the road. 

 As the article stated, this was not the first time: (CBC 2013)

    A multi-government group has destroyed 900 goose eggs laid in nests in Winnipeg to prevent traffic problems in south Winnipeg.

   The eggs were removed and destroyed to prevent flightless geese from walking on the road during the summer months and causing traffic problems for drivers near Bishop Grandin Boulevard and Kenaston Boulevard.

   The Urban Goose Working Group is made up of representatives from the federal and provincial governments as well as the City of Winnipeg and the Winnipeg Airport Authority. Officials from the group said numbers of Canada geese are increasing in the City of Winnipeg because of the abundance of green space and open water.

   In 2011, the group collected 1,071 eggs from 212 nests in the Bishop Grandin-Kenaston area.

Environment Canada granted the project a permit in order to reduce risks to human safety.

 

   Imagine my horror (and the horror of others based on the comments on various local media sites who have shared the stories) to hear that Urban Goose Working Group has destroyed hundreds of eggs AGAIN!  To be frank, it takes 30 days for a goose egg to hatch - this means that if the eggs were destroyed with the article was reported, they were not "omelets" as people crudely stated, they are actual goslings.

    I find this "new" population control method of Canada Geese, in certain parts of Winnipeg disgusting and disturbing.

    Canada geese mate for life; they return home each year, to the place they are hatched. Unfortunately, they usually return to find sprawling urban homes overtaking their marshland breeding ground. The developers put in retention ponds to appease the City of Winnipeg's development agreements. Having no place else to go, the geese naturally stay where "home" is and make their nests.

   As stated in the first article, the Urban Goose Working Group has for the past 4 years destroyed thousand of Canada Goose eggs. Why? To control traffic? To protect planes? Let it be noted that the areas mentioned, are no where near the airport.

   Last summer, there were about fifty adult geese protecting a dozen babies at the Canadian Mint grounds. Do you know how sad that is? Some will argue, they are just geese. They are our national bird - protected by federal law. Killing one could see a citizen receive up to a $10,000 fine for harming a goose or destroying a nest UNLESS you have a permit (which this group claims to have).

   The birds are doing what they naturally do - go home, and nest. There has got to be a better way of dealing with this; putting up fencing, putting up nests in known breeding grounds, but most of all, learning to co-exist.

   I implore ENVIRONMENT CANADA to reconsider giving Urban Goose Working Group the permits to destroy eggs in certain parts of Winnipeg. IF permits must be given, then limit them. Don't let them destroy all the eggs. Leave one or two. Other suggestions could be taking the limits away from the hunters; or putting fencing along the roadways in trouble areas. There are other solutions!  We need to explore them.

    Some feel that Canada Geese are a nuisance, but many of us believe they are part of our proud nations heritage and need to be protected in whatever ways possible.

    Thank you for your consideration.