GeesePeace Comes to North Hempstead
Immediate Release | Contact: David Chauvin (516) 869-7794|March 24th, 2005
Manhasset, NY – Supervisor Jon Kaiman and the North Hempstead Town Board announced today that the Town is partnering with GeesePeace, a non-profit group, and the USDA Wildlife Services Agency to coordinate a humane, non-controversial program to reduce the nuisance aspect of Canada geese throughout Nassau County. The Town is looking for volunteers and local business owners to help implement the program and will be hosting two free public training sessions at Town Hall, 220 Plandome Road in Manhasset, on Monday, April 4, 2005; 7:00PM – 9:00 PM or, Tuesday, April 5, 2005: 10:00 AM– 12:00 PM.
“Town residents over 18 are invited to help the Town in its efforts to humanely, effectively and efficiently resolve the problems created by Canada geese,” said Supervisor Kaiman. “Those interested in helping oil eggs must attend one of the free, two-hour training courses being offered by GeesePeace and the USDA.”
Since November of last year communities and institutions in Nassau County have participated in meetings and discussions to assure the program is coordinated and economical through resource sharing and volunteer participation. The GeesePeace program consists of three components: humane population stabilization of Canada geese, effective and humane nuisance abatement, and public education. The Humane Society of the United States and PETA endorses the GeesePeace program and egg oiling protocols.
The GeesePeace method is simple and low tech and involves two person volunteer teams. The first person approaches the nesting goose and moves her off the nest with an open umbrella. The geese perceive this as a threatening gesture like the open wing. That person keeps the geese away, and this involves concentration. The second team member goes to the nest. There they mark the eggs with a sharpie marker, test them to see if they are warm (started incubation) and put 1 in a bucket of water. If the eggs sink, they have not started to develop and can be humanely oiled. This involves less than one teaspoon of corn oil per egg. If the eggs float, they are too far along, the nest is simply marked with a flag and the team retreats.
“Last year, over 1400 eggs were oiled County-wide,” added Supervisor Kaiman. “Had those eggs hatched, they would have resulted in thousands more geese over the years. Geese are habitual in their choice of nesting spots and will return to the same site year after year, making locating much easier in successive years.”
Among the topic covered in the training are: Overview of the GeesePeace Program, Registering for the GeesePeace Program, Geese nesting behavior, Safe and permitted interaction with Canada geese, Requirements of the FWS permit and Migratory Bird Treaty Act, Egg oiling protocols and techniques, and Reporting and follow-up monitoring.
Canada Geese are not historically native to Long Island. Resident populations were created when wildlife managers in the 1950's, clipped geese to create local populations for hunting. The wetland ecosystems of the Island did not evolve to handle the impact of large populations of geese. When geese congregate, they damaging shoreline vegetation and banks, and leading to erosion and sediment discharge. Congregation also intensifies the quantity of feces deposit and thus nitrogen on a site. This can actually change the pH of the soil and waters. Excess nitrogen in the water leads to algael bloom, hypoxia and fish kills. Coliform can lead to beach closures. Congregating geese and swans can also do serious damage to salt marsh grasses, pulling the shoots out by the roots, leading to erosion, scouring and ultimately wetland loss.
North Hempstead encourages residents to participate in the program either as a trained/certified volunteer who joins a GeesePeace team to locate nests and oil eggs or as a property owner who permits treating geese nests that may be found on your property. For more information about the GeesePeace program visit the GeesePeace web site: www.GeesePeace.org. For more information on a Town sponsored training seminar or the GeesePeace Program, please call (516) 869-7700 or visit the Town’s web site: www.northhempsteadny.gov .