XPost: ca.politics, alt.law-enforcement, seattle.politics
XPost: or.politics

Scare?! I am sick and tired of this issue being tolerated. Near
Seattle we have wonderful beaches, and lots of people (taxpayers
and voters) wanting to cool off in the water. But our health
departments advise against it because of high bacteria counts.
Reduce this nasty population!

from https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/09/01/canada-geese-droppings-california/?utm_source=newsshowcase&utm_medium=gnews&utm_campaign=CDAqDwgAKgcICjCO1JQKMLfRdDCYs40E&utm_content=rundown&gaa_at=g&gaa_n=ASWzDAiKvxKAu632adbY4b-OExTlkIH6og3uBu3b_
7DqyM2RBFnMlx88VWT2p_dXjvBI9aQV07RhpIshQwa3E8T97lkuwKdgeQ%3D%3D&gaa_ts=68b6270e&gaa_sig=t0xZxBeiQQOEh7vmqhURqT6g4RRwNVR44O7wM5WFnDM7MlkRVRfzCJ1WvCBlRpZF9vaoXPxXC5g7EzusIRvYSA%3D%3D

Plagued by geese, one city pays for drones and dogs to scare them away
A San Francisco Bay Area city plans to spend nearly $400,000 to get rid
of the geese — and their excretions.

September 1, 2025 at 6:00 a.m. EDTYesterday at 6:00 a.m. EDT
4 min

Geese gather in Leo J. Ryan Park in Foster City, California. The city
plans to spend about $390,000 to address the local Canada goose
population, which they say threatens public health and causes quality of
life issues. (City of Foster City)

By Angie Orellana Hernandez
The Canada geese produce hundreds of pounds of droppings a day, mess up bacteria levels in the local lagoons and sometimes scare children. Now a Northern California city is poised to spend nearly $400,000 to get rid
of them.

The waterfowl have long posed a problem for Foster City, with up to 400
birds in the roughly 33,000-person community at a given time. After
several experiments with less expensive options, the San Francisco Bay
Area city is ready to pull out all the stops to chase them away: drones
shaped like falcons, border collies to mimic predators and
remote-controlled devices that can float in water.

“If we can find a way to manage this in a way that geese and people can coexist without conflict, that would be a huge success,” said Parks and Recreation Director Derek Schweigart. “We’ve just gotten to the point
where the population has gotten so large that it is overwhelming.”

The plan is poised to start early September, Schweigart said.

An E-Raptor drone at the Eurosatory Defense and Security expo in Seine-Saint-Denis, France, in 2024. Officials in Foster City plan to use falcon-shaped drones to drive away geese. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto/AP)

Cities and states across the country deal with nuisance animals in
different ways. In Florida, local authorities will approve a limited
number of permits to allow the hunting of black bears in select areas
this year. Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission voted in August to reinstate year-long coyote hunting.

Foster City approved a plan in 2021 to kill more than 100 geese, but it
was withdrawn after public backlash, Schweigart said. Then the city
tried nonlethal methods, including egg addling — a population management technique that involves coating an egg with oil so it stops developing —
and installing fences around parks. But the geese remained.

A migratory species, Canada geese used to leave Northeast California in
the winters and head to the state’s warmer Central Valley, said Melanie Weaver, a senior environmental scientist in the California Department of
Fish and Wildlife’s waterfowl unit. But in recent years, the geese have
been staying up north because of lush public parks, tranquil ponds and
access to an easy food supply.

“We, collectively as humans, have provided them a great place to hang
out and raise young,” Weaver said. “There’s not many things that can
take them out except for perhaps a coyote or a golden eagle. You’ve got people giving them handouts. It’s a recipe for disaster.”

Buckets of collected goose droppings in Foster City. (City of Foster City)
The city has allocated about $390,000 to the pilot program. Schweigart
said the investment will be worth it in the long run if it saves the
city the tens of thousands it has spent every year on increased
maintenance and power-washing costs because of the geese.

Wildlife Innovations, a firm the city hired to carry out the program,
will initially focus on the seven parks that have seen the most geese
activity and public complaints, Schweigart said. Jake Manley, president
of Wildlife Innovations, and Daniel Biteman, a wildlife biologist there,
said they’re considering various strategies because geese are clever and quickly pick up on changes to their environment.

“One portion of this is don’t throw everything at them at once,” Manley said. “Don’t put all your cards on the table at once. Every time they
start acclimating, throw something new that they haven’t seen.”

Biteman and Manley are weighing using dog teams, such as border collies
and other herders, to simulate predators so the geese will flee. They’re
also considering employing devices that work on both land and water to
drive them out of the area, or drones to fly over the animals.

If the geese get used to regular drones, Biteman and Manley said, they
can attach red flashing lights or make them emit distress calls. Other
drones can be equipped with flappy wings to appear like falcons, Biteman
said.

The goal is to make the environment as uncomfortable as possible for the
geese while minimizing disturbances to human residents.

“We continually change it up until they don’t have a chance,” Manley
said of the geese.

If the geese move on from Foster City, Weaver warned that they’ll
probably take up residence somewhere nearby. Weaver said it will take “working with your neighbors” to avoid pushing the geese around from
city to city.

At least in Foster City, Schweigart acknowledged, there will always be
some number of geese.

“We’ve created this environment,” he said. “It’s going to be attractive.
Our goal would be to see measurable decreases, not only in the volume of
geese that are present, but more importantly, measure it by the amount
of feces that’s reduced.”

What readers are saying

The comments on Foster City's plan to manage the Canada geese population
using drones and dogs reveal a range of opinions. Many suggest
alternative methods such as changing landscaping to deter geese, using
dogs effectively, or employing humane population control measures.
Some... Show more
This summary is AI-generated. AI can make mistakes and this summary is
not a replacement for reading the comments.

Comments 719

By Angie Orellana Hernandez
Angie Orellana Hernandez is a national breaking news reporter for The Washington Post. Reach her securely on Signal at angie.202.follow on X@angorellanah

Comments include

I live in a rural area with a bear problem very similar to the geese
issue in Foster City. While on vacation, tourists feed the bears then
you can never get rid of them. Bears attack people in my area every
year. The geese are enjoying the same thing with the locals feeding them
in the parks. Stop the feeding and use these mitigations measures
mentioned in the article and the geese will leave.

I spent a decade in Salisbury MD, on the Eastern Shore. We were a major
hub for migrating geese. Spring and fall. I saw first-hand the
annoyances they caused. But now that I live far away from their
migrations, I miss the geese.

Consider temporarily halting your leash laws for large dogs in the ares
where the geese congregate, if it's safe for the dogs (ie no fast roads
close by). Lots of dog owners will love to give their large breeds a
chance to not only run free but also to chase the geese, which for many
breeds will come quite naturally.

One of our local metro parks was successful using a dog. The park is
about 10 landscaped acres sitting in 100 acres of woods. The dog was
trained to drive away geese from the landscaped areas and lived there
24/7. One of our smaller city parks (about 3 acres) was unsuccessful
using a dog service which visited about twice a week for a few weeks in
Spring. The geese would return after the dog left. So this park
eventually resorted to euthanizing the geese.
Professional dogs employed by companies have been used to great success
on corporate campuses. The geese are too wily to get caught. Thus no
carcasses littering the place. As an added bonus their coworkers get to
take them home at night. Dogs are an excellent addition to facilities
and groundskeeping departments.

I have taken them on at our development's pond because the massive
droppings have ruined our enjoyment of our neighborhood. I just let my
herding dog loose whenever a flock lands -- especially now as they are migrating north. Once that happens, I can literally hear them warn an approaching group to go elsewhere... the single dog does not totally
solve the problem but it is way down from a few winters ago when the
entire pond was covered with geese for an entire winter. I have no doubt
that our warmer winters contribute to the problems because they now stay
in residence all winter instead of heading north. Herding dogs by nature
do not harm what they herd, so it is a good and free solution if you
happen to have any in the neighborhood.

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