Humane Society Objects To Plan To Kill Geese Living in Two County Parks 
 
 Montgomery Parks says it has tried nonlethal methods, but geese population has continued to grow 
 
 By Aaron Kraut 
 
 Two Canada geese in a Montgomery County park Montgomery Parks 
 
 The Humane Society of the United States is calling on Montgomery Parks not to go forward with a plan to round up and kill as many as 300 geese in a Silver Spring park and at the popular Lake Needwood recreation area in Rockville. David Petersen, natural resources specialist with Montgomery Parks, said the department is facing an overpopulation of Canada geese, which damage playing fields and water quality, leave droppings filled with bacteria, and can be aggressive toward park guests—especially in the spring while protecting their nests. While these methods have proven beneficial at some park locations, they have not been sufficient to alleviate the impacts at Martin Luther King, Jr., Recreational Park and Rock Creek Regional Park. Recreational Park, the 95-acre park in Silver Spring where Parks staff and a contractor will round up geese for transportation to a processing facility starting either late this month or early July. The animals will then be processed for human consumption and the meat donated to the Maryland Food Bank. “For us, it’s the first time we’ve used this method, but it is by no means unprecedented in our area,” Peterson told WTOP. The Department of Parks has already implemented a number of measures to reduce negative impacts from geese, including a ban on feeding them, habitat manipulation, exclusion fencing, egg-oiling / addling and repelling devices.
– Officials in Montgomery County, Md., have put up fences and attempted to rearrange habitats, but the goose problem in parks there is so bad that they're now resorting to a last-ditch remedy: killing them and donating what's edible to feed the hungry, NBC News reports. Per a press release, up to 300 geese are to be "humanely euthanized" at both Martin Luther King Jr. Recreational Park and Rock Creek Regional Park, "processed for human consumption," and the meat given to the Maryland Food Bank, though a Montgomery Parks rep tells Bethesda Magazine the number will probably be more like 100 to 150. "These geese are year-round residents and create multiple issues for park users and staff," David Petersen says. "The excessive feces they leave, up to one pound daily, is not only unsightly but causes unsanitary conditions." He also tells WTOP that geese protective of their offspring have been known to attack people, and that their grazing damages turf and grass. Petersen says that the gathering of the geese, which will run the parks department about $20 per bird, will take place through the end of June and into mid-July and stresses that it wasn't an easy decision to put the geese down, especially after criticism from the Humane Society. "These roundup and killing programs for geese are not effective because they simply leave open empty attractable habitat, and that habitat will be refilled by geese coming in from nearby areas," a Humane Society director tells Bethesda Magazine. Petersen rebuts that, noting to WTOP that the parks department has been tapping into other, nonlethal methods "for a number of years" and that "all these things have been marginally effective." He also points out it's not an unusual method to get rid of pesky fowl, noting everyone from homeowners associations to federal agencies have gone this route. (PETA claims that live geese are being plucked for their feathers.)