THE GOOD NEWS IN ESSEX COUNTY and THE BAD NEWS IN MONTCLAIR

In the spring of 2006, Essex County began a cooperative effort with GeesePeace to reduce the nuisance aspect of Canada geese, reduce the growth in the population of geese, and to study the impact on neighboring communities. GeesePeace, a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization, is a national leader in the management of geese and is dedicated to building better communities through innovative, effective, and humane solutions to wildlife conflicts. GeesePeace works in partnership with local governments, communities, and property managers all over the country and has been successful with every program it has managed. There is clear evidence that communities that implement this program can effectively, economically, and efficiently resolve their geese nuisance issues and end community conflict. GeesePeace offers all its excellent training and support services for FREE, and since most of the work is done by volunteers, the program remains a low-cost item for the towns. All Essex County towns were invited to join in this cooperative effort. Montclair did not join in.

Elements of the GeesePeace program include:

	Egg oiling in the spring to prevent further increases in the population,
	Landscape modificaton,
	Use of trained Border collies to encourage geese to leave the site, and
	Public education to discourage the feeding of geese.

POPULATION STABILIZATION, relying on committed volunteers

The first strategy - population stabilization through egg oiling - is important because it contributes to the long-term reduction in overall numbers of resident geese and reduces adult loyalty to one site because there are no goslings to protect. This contributes significantly to the effectiveness of the nuisance abatement strategies.?The GeesePeace program encourages all property owners neighboring a potential nuisance abatement site to participate in the Population Stabilization program. That means they need to tolerate geese nesting in the Spring so that eggs can be found and oiled. They can then look forward to a summer without nuisance geese.

In the spring of 2006, local volunteers who were trained at the Environmental Center in Roseland by GeesePeace president David Feld, spread out over Essex County to oil geese eggs as soon as they were laid. This was repeated again in the spring of 2007. These treated eggs will not hatch. The volunteers, including Montclair residents, were trained to find the nests and were given detailed information on how to proceed with oiling the eggs. (Only persons who attend a training class and work under the supervision of the County program may touch any nests or eggs).

When there are few or no goslings, the adult members of the flock have no need to stay and can be easily encouraged to leave the site and surrounding areas. Following the nesting season and oiling of eggs, the next step is the introduction of a trained Border collie to the site. When the Border collie chases the geese, they will escape/fly to the nearest water body. The geese understand instinctually that, in 4 to 6 weeks after nesting ends (mid-May), they will molt (lose flight feathers) and will need a safe body of water to escape from predators. The Border collie will enter the water and continue to chase the geese so the geese will not consider that water body a safe escape destination. (Where the body of water is too large for the collies to be safe and effective, they can be transported in a small boat or kayak) The geese will soon be aware that this area is not a safe molting place and they will leave to find another body of water where they can escape predators. Some geese will go on a molt migration when they have failed nesting and return to Canada with their migrating cousins. The geese not going on a molt migration will find an area lake, pond or marsh that is safe for molting. The goal of the GeesePeace program is to ensure that geese LEAVE the water bodies where they are not tolerated.

WHY MONTCLAIR MUST JOIN THE ESSEX COUNTY GEESEPEACE PROGRAM

For the past few years, Montclair tried a number of nonlethal methods to control the population of Canada geese, but its efforts were ineffective. When the township declined the offer to join in the County GeesePeace program, the Township Manager stated that the township staff is very familiar with the issues and that, free services or not, the township is well ahead of anything GeesePeace or the county has to offer. (Montclair Times, May 11, 2006)

In fact, the township did not have a handle on the problem, and the result was a large increase in the number of geese in Montclair. In the summer of 2007, the Township Council, without notifying the community or acknowledging their plan to residents who had expressed concern over the fate of the geese, voted to approve the slaughter of up to 100 geese in Montclair. When it was finally discovered that 80 geese had been rounded up in Edgemont Park and electrocuted, the township leaders attempted to justify their action by claiming that they had tried everything to manage the population of Canada geese in Montclair. What is so shocking is that what they failed to try was staring them in the face - a GeesePeace program already up and running right here in Essex County - a program which they were invited to join in 2006, but which they rejected without even learning the basics and why it has worked elsewhere.

For this reason, Township leaders failed to take effective steps to solve the geese nuisance issues in town and have let the residents down. They spent money on ineffective measures including placing a fake coyote and fake dead geese in the lake at Edgemont Park. The town then spent several thousand dollars paying for the slaughter of the geese in the park and tragically, this does not even offer a solution. The areas have already been repopulated with more geese. Killing is not ever going to end the nuisance, and many residents were incensed when they learned of the slaughter of the geese.