Goose debate still has wings

SANDPOINT — Locals with strong feelings on either side of the City Beach geese relocation issue made their last-ditch appeals Wednesday to get the City Council to either halt the program or move on with its implementation.

More than a dozen people spoke up about the matter over the course of 40 minutes during the public comment portion of the council’s meeting, with some comparing the trapping, banding and relocation of Canada geese to the Holocaust and others warnings of a boycott by Canadian tourists if the plan moves ahead. Others, meanwhile, advocated for swift implementation of the program and offered to hasten the effort by recommending a depredation hunt at the beach to thin the expanding ranks of resident Canada geese, which have left the beach’s grounds littered with excrement.

The city’s plan involves rounding up as many 200 hundred birds and relocating them to an Idaho Department of Fish & Game Wildlife Management Area in Kootenai County. Banded waterfowl which return to the popular stretch of Lake Pend Oreille would be marked for death.

There is abhorrence on both sides of the issue.

Plan opponents argue the city’s relocation effort is inhumane, uncivilized and needless. Supporters who are weary of the stench and filth say it is necessary and overdue.

Jane Davis, a lifelong resident and City Beach lifeguard in the 1970s, said Canada geese were a non-issue in that era or even 20 years later.

“Now, there is no way I would ever take my granddaughter and let her put her put her precious hands in that basically goose poop litter box of sand,” Davis said.

Lynne Urfer agreed.

“I would not take my children to the beach the way it is now,” she said.

Marci Darling, a bird hunter, urged for the establishment of a depredation hunt utilizing low-range, biodegradable ammunition together hunter effort and resources to reduce the number of Canada geese that frequent City Beach.

“They did it on the airport with the deer,” Darling said, referring to a hunter-based effort to reduce the herd of deer and interference with flight operations at the facility.

Another lifelong resident, Helen Newtown, was brief and blunt.

“This is a difficult issue, but that’s why we elected you — to make difficult decisions. Bite the bullet and do it,” she said.

But the geese relocation plan continues to disturb other members of the public, who contend there remain alternatives untested by the city which would spare geese a death sentence, such as outfil called Geese Peace, which boast a 100-percent success rate in running off geese using canine hazing along with other countermeasures.

“They’ve worked with governments, communities and cities on worse issues than what we’re even facing,” said Adriana de Amorim-Miller. “We should not let this slip by.”

Some of the most pointed remarks came from Magarete Fallat, whose father was beaten to death for refusing to join the Nazi Party.

“Very reminiscent of the country and what happened where I came from,” Fallat said.

Bonner County resident Jane Fritz provided the council with a 137-signature petition, 76 of which were signed by city residents, calling on the city halt the plan and develop a less barbaric one that utilizes a variety of approaches, including allowing dogs on leashes at the beach.

“These people believe, and I agree, that the mere presence of dogs during daytime hours would help deter the geese from lingering on the grass,” said Fritz.

Sagle resident Heidi Hampe said she was asked to speak on behalf of residents in the Canadian cities of Nelson, Gray Creek, Balfour and Calgary.

“They’re taking a stand to boycott vacationing in Sandpoint if the city starts the culling of the Canada geese. They’ve also made a commitment to educate their fellow Canadians of Sandpoint’s practice through social media, news outlets and petitions, so it will become international news,” Hampe said.

Kim Woodruff, the city’s Parks & Recreation director, said the city is not abandoning its efforts to deter geese with canine hazing and the placement of predator decoys, in addition to the relocation plan.

“That’s part of our plan,” he said.

Keith Kinnaird can be reached by email at kkinnaird@bonnercountydailybee.com and follow him on Twitter @KeithDailyBee.