Goose no longer as loose in parks

"It's easier to find a place to sit," she said, noting that there seemed to be fewer goose droppings on the grass than in previous summers. "It used to be that everywhere you looked there was poop," Newnham said.

That was good news for the geese, too.

While Seattle parks officials and animal rights activists won't complete an official report until next month, they said it looks like the alternatives they used this summer in an effort to avoid killing geese worked out well. In years past, the city gassed geese to death to control their numbers and prevent them from overwhelming parks. The practice sparked outrage among many Seattle residents.

But this year the city, working with the Progressive Animal Welfare Society (PAWS), used dogs and even laser guns to shoo geese away from popular spots in five parks: Green Lake, Seward Park, Matthews Beach, South Lake Union Park and Gas Works Park.

Seattle Parks and Recreation spokesman David Takami said fewer people complained about goose droppings this summer. And Barbara DeCaro, the parks manager in charge of the program, said she's gotten no complaints of geese making deposits in people's lawns.

One of the methods used instead of killing the geese was in evidence the other night, when a couple of PAWS volunteers patrolled the lawn not far from the Green Lake Community Center, brandishing what appeared to be speed guns used by state troopers. But instead of catching lead-footed drivers, the guns shone bright red dots the size of softballs as far away as on trees across the lake.

Alas, it was a wild goose chase because there were no geese around.

But one of the gunslingers, Mark Gross, who runs the program for PAWS, said, "The geese really don't like it when they see the dot on the back of another goose. Usually the geese will fly away, hopefully into the brush or some other part of the lake not many people use."

Or, "they'll squawk and swim away," Gross said, stretching his neck out and flapping his arms.

Apparently the light, which does no harm, is annoying to humans as well because as Gross demonstrated the gun, he inadvertently shone the dot on the side of the head of a woman who was taking a stroll around the lake.

The woman exclaimed, "Oh!" and picked up her pace.

As annoying as the lasers might be, animal rights activists say it beats the method the city had been using.

Animal rights groups last summer angrily protested the killing of the Canada geese. One group, not affiliated with PAWS, went as far as to hang a banner with parks director Ken Bounds' name and home telephone number from an overpass at the end of the West Seattle Bridge.

Bounds subsequently agreed to try the new methods, although he said the use of alternatives was prompted by a lower-than-usual number of geese this year, not by last year's protests. (Editor's Note: The original version of this story may have given an incorrect impression about Bounds' motivations.)

Left open, however, is whether the experiment has put an end to killing the geese. Mathew Linnell, the U.S. Department of Agriculture's assistant state director of wildlife services, who monitors the goose population and advises the city, said reducing the goose population in the past is what made the other methods feasible this year.

But ultimately, Linnell said killing geese will still have to be part of the strategy or the goose population will grow too large.

DeCaro takes a middle ground, saying no decision has been made on killing geese next year. She was optimistic that efforts like the ones used this summer could keep goose droppings in check without any killing. But she said killing geese would remain an option if the problem gets out of control again.

But Gross of PAWS says geese do not have to be killed even if their numbers grow. By chasing them from popular areas, he said, people can encourage them to hang out elsewhere.

In addition to using trained dogs and lasers to scare the geese, dozens of volunteers helped parks staff scour areas around the community center and the wading pool at Green Lake, looking for poop.

Deb Cronheim, 38, and John Creahan, 42, slightly chagrined that their 15 minutes of fame came as they held brooms and dust pans at Green Lake, said their concern for the birds motivated them to volunteer an hour a week.

As evidence of what they believe to be the program's success driving geese away from popular areas, they pointed to a garbage bag that was only one-fifth full.

Earlier in the summer, they said, they could have filled the whole bag.

P-I reporter Kery Murakami can be reached at 206-448-8131 or kerymurakami@seattlepi.com

Add P-I Local headlines to