Canada geese destroy crops, anger farmers

Published 4:00 am Thursday, November 11, 2010

SALEM — Canada geese are beautiful to some. But they are costly to farmers.

Farmer Mike Bielenberg said that last year, geese ruined 35 acres of wheat worth $171,000. This year, the geese are devouring his rye grass.

“I put scarecrows up and stuff, but they just kept eating it and eating it,” Bielenberg said.

The effort to curb a Canada goose population that has increased by at least 275,000 in the past 30 years resulted in 2009’s Goose Control Task Force. The panel in July submitted 14 recommendations to Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission, which forwarded them to the department.

This fall, ODFW is putting some of those suggestions into action. One of the changes is the addition of more goose hunting days.

But the solution is not as simple as just allowing more geese to be killed. Laws and regulations protect the geese, and anyone who intentionally kills a Canada goose without a proper permit can be charged with felony animal abuse.

The ODFW decided to use part of a $786,795 federal grant it got last month to pay private landowners to let hunters shoot geese on their land.

Mary Bliss, director of Turtle Ridge Wildlife Center in Salem, said more hunting isn’t the answer: “There are nonlethal methods to prevent the geese from destroying any fields.”