Town seeks geese control solutions

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Chilhowie officials will invite Tom Totten and his border collies to the town’s community park to see if they can chase away a growing population of resident Canada geese whose droppings are spoiling the park for citizens.
One of the park’s users, town resident Linda Stackpole, asked the town council Thursday what could be done to clear the park of goose excrement she said causes her not to use the park.
Town Manager Bill Boswell had already looked into possible remedies, identifying Totten who performed his geese-scattering technique for the Town of Saltville.
“He is willing to come up here and demonstrate,” Boswell said. Totten charges $35 per trip, but does not charge if he arrives and finds no geese for his dogs to chase, the town manager said.
Lynn Pease said from the audience the dogs alone “won’t fix the problem” and suggested other techniques used at Saltville, such as trapping with clearance from the Virginia Department of Game and Inlands Fisheries and egg addling that stops the development of embryos, will be needed.
Council member Bill Clear said chasing and trapping and releasing geese will not be effective as the birds “come back to where they were born and raised.”
Boswell said the town will also look into methods for removing goose droppings from the park and its new recreation trail.People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals urged Saltville five years ago to abandon lethal control techniques like controlled hunting and adopt instead strategies including “habitat-modification; the use of repellents, fencing, and frightening devices; and reproductive controls such as egg-addling.”
The organization said in 2005, “All PETA is asking for is the chance to demonstrate to the residents of Saltville that geese can be controlled without violence."
PETA said it “and other animal protection organizations, including Geesepeace, have had immense success in humanely resolving clashes between human and goose populations in communities throughout the country. In fact, a nonlethal program implemented by the Lake Barcroft Property Owners Association in Fairfax, Va., was so successful that it has been adopted by municipalities in states all over the country, including Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, North Carolina, and Washington state.”

dkegley@wythenews.com