Goose control is again on the City of Vernon鈥檚 scope.
Seven months after abandoning a goose population management strategy, the city will now spend up to $1,000 to have representatives from a Vancouver Island group speak virtually to council.
Council received a memorandum titled Goose Management Program Proposal, at its committee of the whole meeting Monday, Jan. 22 from city staff. The move to spend not more than $1,000 on a virtual presentation from GooSE was declassified from the committee of the whole meeting, and brought into the regular meeting on the afternoon of Jan. 22.
However, the remainder of the memo has not been declassified, prohibiting the city from providing details of the note.
GooSE stands for Guardians of Our Salish Estuaries Society (GooSE), a science-based, non-profit conservation organization on mid-Vancouver Island, dedicated to healthy, productive estuaries.
The city scrapped a goose population management strategy in June 2023 after a search for contractors came up empty.
In 2021, city council switched from a goose cull to a 鈥榢ill-to-scare鈥� program, which took effect in 2022. The kill-to-scare program involves killing the dominant goose in a flock to deter other birds from returning to the area.
The city was looking to deploy the program in several areas that geese frequent, including Paddlewheel Park, Kin Beach, Lakeshore Park, Marshall Fields and Polson Park.
On its , members of GooSE led efforts in the late 1990s to reduce regional Canada Goose populations by sterilizing eggs, and promoting additional hunting seasons and increased bag limits.
From 2008 to 2012, the Guardians and other volunteers banded and collared nearly 300 geese at three Island estuaries, then surveyed marked and unmarked geese in the region to learn more about their seasonal abundance, and use of estuaries and other habitats.
