Stevens Point is turning to high tech methods as it wages a war against foreign invaders: Canada geese.
The worst problem with the geese is near the city’s band shell, according to city parks director Tom Schrader.
“People put their towels down and blankets and chairs, or they want to sit on the grass and sit and listen to the music, and the grass happens to be full of fecal matter.”
UW-Stevens Point researchers will be deploying new deterrents including noise disruption devices and pyrotechnics.
Schrader says the city hopes it’s more effective than their current methods. “Coyote cutouts and green laser pointers, the owl hoots up in the trees and the streamers. They were fairly successful, but the coyote cutouts had to be moved every day, so it’s kind of time consuming.”
People have been feeding the geese over the years, which only attracts them to places they’re not wanted.
“The more you feed them, they just keep coming back, and once the young get used to that area, as they get to be adults they come back to the same area.”
If the new methods aren’t effective, the city will turn to its backup plan and have local hunters and volunteers continue to use the current methods until the geese take the hint and move elsewhere.
