The City of Edmundston implements a geese scaring program

May 13, 2022

The Canada Goose population is growing across Canada, including in the Edmundston region. The increasing population of these large migratory birds brings several challenges and can lead to conflicts with the use of certain city spaces. For example, geese eat lots of grass and release a large amount of feces daily, making public spaces less attractive, even unusable. In addition, geese can sometimes exhibit aggressive behavior.

Our actions

"For these reasons, the City of Edmundston's green spaces team has set up a geese scaring program to minimize these conflicts and ensure that our parks remain usable," explains Daniel Gautreau, City of Edmundston’s Green Spaces Coordinator. “For a few weeks, starting May 16, our teams will use strikers that emit high-intensity noise which are very short in duration. They will particularly target sports fields to allow teams to play on clean fields. The purpose of this program is to ensure that geese don’t feel comfortable in these areas and aren’t prone to settling down. This program is implemented with other actions, such as the interdiction to feed geese,” concluded Mr. Gautreau.

The challenge with resident geese

According to the federal government, the Canada goose was considered a temporary visitor to southern Canada before the late 1960s. In the 1970’s, populations were re-established or introduced in several southern regions of the country for hunting or observation purposes. Since then, temperate-nesting Canada geese have thrived on human-modified lands, and their abundance has increased dramatically. Urban and suburban development provides geese with a quality habitat and protection from natural predators and hunters. Geese that build their nests in urban areas pose several challenges for municipalities. Parks and green space managers therefore set up scaring programs, with other complementary control methods. Several cities have adopted policies that ask people not to feed wild animals. For example, walkers must refrain from throwing breadcrumbs at the geese so they don’t settle in parks.

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CONTACT: Daniel Gautreau, Green Spaces Coordinator, 506.739.2103, daniel.gautreau@edmundston.ca