Bridgeport Parks and Recreation Director isn’t anti-feathered creature. It’s safe to say that City Manager Kim Haws or members of City Council put curses on our winged friends.

 

Burton, however, is a realist. He, along with Haws, City Council and plenty other members of city staff, certainly can hear when the public has a concern. And what they’ve heard for years now is that the defecation by the fowl at various Bridgeport watering areas – mainly Deegan and Hinkle Lakes, but several other locations as well – has become a problem that can’t be ignored.

 

Because of that, at the Sept. 22 meeting of City Council, the city’s governing body approved $7,000 out of the Parks and Recreation general fund to help remove the birds – particularly Canadian Geese – from areas throughout the city. The droppings by the animals have become something a bit more than a nuisance.

 

“It’s been a complaint for years and Council was good enough to sign off on this to get it started,” said Burton.

 

For those who are animal lovers and believe this is an eradication project where the Geese will be killed, Burton said that’s not the case. Instead, he said the project is one that’s been done at other locations through the USDA (or the U.S. Forest Service as was mentioned at the Council meeting) and under the guidance of Tom Elliott.

 

“They’ll be starting this quickly as the contract is signed. In fact, people may already notice individuals working in the middle of the afternoon, in the night or in the morning,” said Burton. “The goal is to get them to leave and not want to come back.

“At worst, we want to thin out the herd so to speak. At best, we want them all gone,” Burton continued. “They’re nasty and you’ve got it to a point where the droppings are a problem on the trail, they’re on the playgrounds and it’s just not a good things. I can’t imagine anyone that would be okay to have city property used by our residents continually covered in geese crap.”

 

So how are they removed?

 

Burton said the geese are harassed. He said ribbons are tied on trees that bother them and lasers are shined at them that they don’t like. Also, corn oil is placed on their eggs, which leads to them looking for places to relocate.

 

Council members were hoping to partner with various surrounding entities – such as the North Central West Virginia Airport and even Maplewood – to see if they were interested in joining in as opposed to having the geese go to those areas and make their issues with geese worse.

 

“We don’t want the relocation to be intrusive to surrounding areas,” said Haws at the September Council meeting.

 

Council member Darrell Bowen said a similar program worked at Charles Pointe. However, he said that was done more than a year ago and for the  first time he recently noticed they had returned. He suggested, and others concurred, that Council may want to consider allocating dollars for this in the future.

 

Part of the problem, however, is from those who visit the areas where the geese are located. Burton said it’s not unusual on any given day to go to one of the bodies of water in the city and see residents and their children feeding the geese.

 

“When families go the lake, part of the trip is often feeding the geese. We have signs up telling people not to feed them, but they’re largely ignored,” said Burton. “Feeding them actually make them comfortable and ultimately aggressive. The goal with what we’re doing is to make them so uncomfortable they leave.”

 

Editor's Note: Photos by Tyler Maxwell of www.benqueenphotography.com.