Prospect Park Wildlife Management Advisory Committee Canada Goose Management Pla

So, here are the recommendations that were made at the Nov. 17 meeting. Thanks to FIDO for providing this. as well as their tag line at the end, which I love.

Prospect Park Wildlife Management Advisory Committee Canada Goose Management Plan

Brooklynites care so passionately about Prospect Park and its natural environment and many were truly disturbed by the USDA’s actions to cull approximately 400 Canada geese in Prospect Park in the summer of 2010. In response, Prospect Park formed a Wildlife Management Advisory Committee (the Committee), consisting of professionals involved with animal welfare, education, science and urban park management. The Committee was tasked with an initial goal to recommend a Canada Goose Management Plan for Prospect Park that is scientifically sound, humane, practical, and transparent to the community.

This plan would help maintain the goose population at acceptable levels to facilitate cleaner shorelines and water, as well as support a diverse array of waterfowl within Prospect Park’s 585 acres. This management policy could serve as an example to others for the control of the Canada Goose population. It is understood, however, that the Mayor and the City of New York have the authority to give the USDA permission to employ Canada Geese mitigation measures as they see necessary.

Management Actions The Committee reviewed a wide variety of potential management actions to control Canada geese in Prospect Park. Only actions selected by the Committee as appropriate for use in Prospect Park are included below. The criteria used to evaluate the various management actions were, scientific merit, humane practice, and practicality for the Park to undertake.

1. Designation of Prospect Park as a “no-feed” zone in city statutes and literature Geese will linger in large numbers where they are being fed regularly. Feeding geese contributes to overpopulation both in Prospect Park Lake and in the entire region. Additionally, many of the things humans feed geese, especially bread, are actually harmful to them and the lake environment. The Park will work with the New York City Department of Parks and Recreation to get the Park designated as a “no-feed zone”. This designation will require a significant amount of public education, enforcement and outreach to change behavior.

{My comment: enforcement? Does this mean they'll arrest children feeding the waterfowl, and continue to ignore the illegal fishing, dumping, and trashing of the park?}


2. Egg oiling This method involves going to nesting sites early in the nesting season and rendering the eggs unviable by coating them with oil. All necessary DEC permits would be obtained and Humane Society guidelines and training would be followed to ensure eggs were in the early stages of development. This practice could significantly reduce the number of goslings produced in the Park annually.

{My comment: This might take money, so it will never happen}


3. Border Collie Patrol This proposal involves utilizing trained dogs and professional trainers, mostly on board a boat, to discourage geese from remaining in the Park after breeding season and before they molt. This method has been used successfully in other urban park areas. The timing and context of this action are both very important. It must take place in May and June, and it must follow a successful egg addling season since geese with young are less likely to leave the breeding grounds. This will depend on the cost and equipment availability.

[Again, takes money, won't happen. I love that this Committee totally denied that this option was in the works a week ago.}

4. Habitat Modification Geese prefer large swaths of grass and open areas with access to the shoreline. Shrubs or tall grasses impede vision and physical passage to and from water, and can potentially hide predators. Geese will tend to avoid areas planted in this manner. As Prospect Park continues to restore its waterways, care will be taken to try to reduce habitat for Canada Geese while enhancing habitat for other relatively rare species of migratory waterbird such as Pied-Billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps). The Park’s desire to enhance and protect our natural systems is a top priority.

{sounds good, takes money}

5. Research Accurate population numbers for Canada Geese in Prospect Park are currently unavailable. The Park, with help from some members of the committee, aims to begin a more comprehensive population assessment in the Park. Things to look at include “migrant” versus “resident” populations, seasonal fluctuations, and breeding birds. The Committee also hope to gain better knowledge of the impact of large goose populations on water quality and on quality of habitat for other aquatic organisms. Finally, the Committee would want to be able to assess the effectiveness of our various goose management actions by ongoing monitoring.

[My comment: This takes someone to pay attention to what's going on in the Prospect Park Lake. I'm doing my best, and so are a number of other watchers, but the Parks Dept. and the Alliance seem to ignore all of us. "Migrant" vs. "resident?" There's no genetic difference. If they decide to stay, they're resident. If they move on, like a bunch did last week, they're migrants. }

Many of the management actions mentioned above can and should have an education and/or community involvement aspect. Prospect Park would like to work with various community members such as the Humane Society, the Brooklyn Bird Club, and Audubon as well as educational institutions to bring the community further into this process. A training program for this education will be developed and implemented by the Spring of 2011.


Prospect Park Wildlife Management Advisory Committee – Members


– Audubon New York – Brooklyn Bird Club – Brooklyn College – Geese Peace – Humane Society of the United States – Prospect Park and Prospect Park Alliance – Prospect Park Community Committee – New York City Audubon – New York City Council Member Brad Lander – New York City Department of Parks & Recreation, including the Department’s Urban Park Rangers and Natural Resources Group – New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

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Be the person your dog thinks you are!

{My comment: Thank you FIDO. I'm trying!}

JFK, RIP

missed the meeting, what happened?

I'm very sorry I didn't get to the meeting last night, when the Prospect Park Wildlife Management plans were unveiled. Home nursing duties intervened. To my readers: were you there? What happened?

After two gray and rainy days, looks like the whole park is enjoying the sun. Swan family, all six of them, look fine, curled up and basking in the sun. I love the way they curl their necks around and tuck their beaks into the feathers on their backs. Looks so cozy and comfy. I didn't see Grandpa, the Lone Swan, but I'm sure he's happily elsewhere - maybe by the boathouse.

Two cygnets were on land, the rest on water. One hissed at JJ when she got close. JJ is sensible and backs off. I'm convinced that there's 1 male cygnet and 3 females, mainly because there's only one who hisses and makes a display when JJ comes near.

I realized today that I've only been blogging since March, and I've never looked so carefully at what's happening this time of year. Masses and masses of beautifully colored leaves on the ground. JJ loves to roll on her back in the leaves. She is so happy, I think I'd like to join her. The ginkgo trees seem to be holding tightest to their leaves, which are a bright, garish yellow. Almost blinding in the sunlight. I prefer the darker tones of reds, oranges, and a little brown in my foliage preferences. I wonder if the same genes that makes the ginkgo a survivor from the Permian era (270 million years ago) make the leaves hold on so tightly.

Husband is back home from hospital, but may not get to the park for a while. He's on IV antibiotics, and caries his pump around with him - in a tasteful black bag, of course. We don't want to risk a friendly dog getting caught in one of the tubes. Meanwhile, JJ is SO HAPPY to have him home, and stays close.

Achilles is saved!

Great news! Ed and Anne managed to capture the injured swan, whom they named Achilles because of the injury to the foot, and freed it from the triple-barbed fish hook. There pare pictures and a video at Brooklyn Paper. Here's the link
http://brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/47/web_cygnet2.html

And here's a link to the earlier Brooklyn paper post, telling about the injured swan. http://www.brooklynpaper.com/stories/33/47/web_cygnet.htmlI knew that Anne was taking away all the dangerous lines, etc., that they came across. I had no idea that she was making such fantastic jewelry out of it. I may have to follow in her footsteps and start my own line of "found junk" jewelry.

Coming soon: Geese management proposals

So, there's a committee presenting its geese management proposals. On November 17, at 6:00, at the Picnic House [Park Slope side of the park, near 3rd Street). The Prospect Park Wildlife Management Advisory Committee (PPWMAC), from whom I heard on Oct. 29, will present their plan. Everyone with any interest in wildlife should be there. Now, they are asking that people RSVP to elandau@prospectpark.org, but I think this is a sneaky way to diminish attendance, since not everybody has e-mails, believe it or not. So just show up.

And it;s about time - wildlife is under attack again, and the Parks Dept. is doing nothing about it. One of the cygnets has an (illegal) barbed hook stuck in its foot, complete with an attached fishing line. To my knowledge, the Parks Dept. has NEVER, EVER, given out a ticket for any of the many, many violations of the fishing rules and laws. Yet they love to ticket unleashed dogs at 9:10a mere 10 minutes after the off-leash time has run out. Sorry, got carried away there.

Actually, today I only saw 3 of the cygnets. I hope the fourth one is okay and just not hanging out with its siblings. I'm going to have nightmares about the poor thing. Is it trapped in another part of the lake? Did the hook get ripped out, leaving it bleeding horribly?

Go to that meeting. We need to protect wildlife in the park.

Restorative Prospect Park

I think JJ misses Ber as much as I do. She was looking very sad and walking slowly, but I threw a whole bunch of sticks for her at the Peninsula Meadow, and we chased each other, and it raised both our spirits. The news about Ber is good, and he should be home in a few days. Even the doctors seem cheerful when they talk to him.

Grandpa Swan is still on his own, eating the grass by the road. I saw Anne and Ed, who said that Papa Swan has been showing the cygnets how to hiss and fly, and they've kind of scared Grandpa off. They also say that one of the cygnets has a fish hook embedded in its leg, with a line attached. I saw the cygnets, but they stayed in the water - couldn't see their feet. Also, some girls were feeding them, and I didn't want to intrude for a closer look.

Check out the beautiful bird pictures:

Smells like snow

Two days in a row of brisk weather. Perfect for the marathon yesterday - bright, sunny, cool. Today it was overcast and felt and smelled like snow. Weather was not quite cold enough - in the 40's. Everything in the Park looks like it is preparing for winter. Leaves turning color and falling - piles of them, some being raked up. The Port-a-Johns have been taken away. Back in Virginia and West Virginia, people who have outhouses use them all year round, but New York city slickers must have more tender bottoms. Not sure where people will go when desperate. I they're expecting fewer visitors.

The duckweed has been eaten, and even the phragmites are looking less lucious - more beaten down and eaten up. Grandpa, the Lone Swan, was sitting on a grassy hill next to the road, feasting on grass. Some of the cygnets are starting to fly. I guess they have enough pin feathers now. And there seem to be way more Canada geese in the Parade Grounds than in the park. Do you think they heard about the park's geese extermination policy?

Zen in the Park

Yesterday, it was raining so hard that JJ (dog) refused to go to the park. I could barely drag her to the end of the block, in fact. This morning, it was just overcast. Very few people, and it was beautifully quiet and peaceful - truly a Zen moment. Which was exactly what I needed, since my husband has gone into the hospital for tests. We are assuming the best, but appreciating the calm and quiet of an early autumn morning. Even the swans were almost motionless, sitting still, doing a little grooming by the edge of the lake. The cygnets are almost 50% white-feathered, and looking quite decorative.

Photos from Sean Casey Halloween Bark

Thought I'd share some really cute photos.