Franklin Pond's nuisance geese about to become dead ducks

FRANKLIN - Until recently, there hadn’t been a large number of Canada geese infesting the environs of Franklin Pond. And if the geese had known what’s good for them, they would have stayed away. The pond, for years home to a growing flock of the birds that are sometimes called rats with wings, is about to become a place where a silly goose can quickly become a dead duck. Earlier this year, the borough council, concerned with the growing flock that made the pond home and befouled its water and shores with their droppings, resolved to employ a professional sharpshooter to reduce the size of the flock should it return this spring. And now, said borough administrator Richard R. Wolak, they’re starting to return. “The purpose was not to shoot geese indiscriminately, but only to eliminate some when the problem became too big,” Wolak said of the council’s action. “Now we’re approaching that point. Now that the problem has appeared again, we’re going to move toward that particular direction.” Canada geese, once an endangered species, are a growing nuisance in many communities. They eat - and defecate - nearly constantly, making a stroll around the pond like a walk through a mine field. According to a 1999 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report, there are “potential health hazards from geese, (and) water quality impacts.” The town had considered and tried other ways of getting the birds to goose step out of town. One was using a public address system to broadcast noises that were supposed to be offensive to geese. Instead, said one councilman, the geese reacted to it as if it were a “mating call.” Another ploy was to have borough employees “shoo them away.” But, as anyone who has dealt with the birds can attest, they don’t shoo easily. And, if annoyed, they will attack humans, effectively shooing the shooers. Another control measure is to find their nests in the spring and addle the newly laid eggs. The geese will continue to incubate the eggs, unaware that they cannot develop. If the eggs were removed or broken, the geese would simply manufacture a new batch. The borough did addle some eggs, officials said, but not enough to make a dent in the flock. That left one alternative - hiring licensed experts to shoot a portion of the flock afflicting the pond. To do that, the borough had to get a permit from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “It’s going to be done under very tightly controlled circumstances,” Wolak emphasized. “And it’s going to be done at hours when there’s no danger to the general public.” Up to 75 geese can be removed on a permit, which would last about one year. No one other than the professional hired to do the job may kill a goose. When borough officials first proposed lethal intervention several months ago, they received a few inquiries asking whether “everything possible” had been done to curtail the population without resorting to killing geese. Officials said they’d considered all alternatives and haven’t heard any complaints since. “We have tried to do our due diligence and do everything non-lethal, but we’re at that point where we’ve exhausted all non-lethal means to control the population,” Wolak concluded. “We have designated certain people that have been trained with firearms. And we’re going to do it under very controlled circumstances.”