I am writing to congratulate the Bend Metro Parks and Recreation District (BMPRD). Their staff does an amazing job. Those beautiful parks, the varied recreation programs, and the wonderful special events put on by this great organization I would argue are major contributions to the outstanding quality of life we all enjoy.
I would particularly like to mention the success the BMPRD has had in controlling the goose population. According to the front page article in The Bulletin last week (June 23) the population of geese is 200, the same as it was last year and the number of goslings hatched this year is actually down from last year.
This does leave me with a question: Why is the BMPRD seeking a permit to exterminate some of these geese? Their program of non-lethal population control is clearly working. I understand that the cost of cleaning goose-poop out of the parks is high. The cost of removing pinecones from the parks is high also, but I don’t hear anyone clambering to kill the Ponderosas.
I’m sure the residents of Denver, Los Angeles and Philadelphia do not have to concern themselves with the cost of removing goose poop from their parks. But isn’t that why so many of us have migrated from those places to here? The gorgeous old trees that drop pinecones and the beautiful geese that drop poop are all part of the setting that has drawn us in and entice us to build our nests in Bend.
I hope the BMPRD decides not to go through with their plans to execute these birds. The only crime they have committed is recognizing what a beautiful place Bend is to live.
Sincerely,
– Barb Campbell
This article appears in Jul 1-7, 2010.
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Lots those geese were ankle tagged and never left Bend. Thats not natural for a migrating bird. Generation after generation of geese NOT migrating is not good or natural.
Denver, Los Angeles and Philadelphia are not Bend…. and god willing will never be. Mass concentrations of humans is about appealing as a park filled with goose sh?t.
Well there are 2 obvious choices here. Manage the population of geese, or manage the population of humans. And while I may jokingly (slightly anyway) joke about having to effectively manage the brain diseased over abundant liberal population beginning with the subspecies known commonly as “teacher” because of their rampant entitlement demands, the obvious choice is the goose. A bigger issue here is the $900.00 per hour the Parks department is paying to breast out the birds for the shelters to use. They are paying $15 per bird and as a “former” avid goose hunter the cost effectiveness of meat for de-feathering the birds versus breasting them out is so far off, it takes roughly a minute to breast the bird (where 90% of the meat is, and that equates to $900 per hour for someone who has ever killed a goose or three in their lives. So either put oil on the legs of the human females, or lets feed people with the geese, no brainer I would think, but I look to you as the experts on no brained ideas.
I’ve read Campbell’s letter three times over the last week and am no closer to understanding it now than I was a week ago.
People who anthropomorphize beasts–and that’s what a crapping, honking, bread-eating goose is–miss the point. Animals have a place in the world and when people insist on disrupting that natural order, there are going to be consequences.
If people would cease feeding the disproportionate goose population, most might return to migrating. Barring that, there is only one other way I know to reduce that population.
I am grateful that parks and rec finally had the cajones to do the job that could and should have been done years ago. I hope they continue to act that way because there are a great many more geese that need to be dealt with than they thought.
And to those who don’t like the inevitable results of their actions (feeding the geese), stop it. Maybe the geese will once again migrate and move on and the killing can stop.