This Minnesota City Wants All Goose Eggs GONE
A major city in Minnesota is taking bold measures to deal with an exploding wildlife problem. This new controversial strategy has residents viewing the situation through a wide variety of lenses.
While some people are actively against the city's hands-on tactics, others have slowly come around to the idea, and many believe it's a necessary step to reclaim public spaces. According to a recent report by MPR News, the ongoing battle between crews and nature is pushing everyone involved to adapt.
How Rochester, Minnesota, Became 'Goose Central'
Back in the 1920s, Mayo Clinic founder Dr. Charlie Mayo brought a captive flock of giant Canada geese to his Mayowood Estate to spruce things up a bit. Not long after, the population exploded.
Initially, the city of Rochester embraced the geese and installed Corn Vending Machines, so locals could feed them whenever they wanted. Another big reason for the giant population of Canadian Geese in town was the Silver Lake Power Plant. For decades, the plant discharged warm water into the 50-acre lake, keeping it open and ice-free all winter long.
With open water and a steady food supply, migrating geese had no reason to fly further south. By the late 1970s through the mid-2000s, the population peaked at an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 birds, leading to aggressive behavior and an abundance of goose droppings in local parks.
By 2007, the sheer volume of droppings had turned walking paths into a slimy hazard and left park playgrounds nearly unusable, forcing the city to pull the plug on the corn machines. The birds dealt with another setback in 2015 when the Silver Lake Plant shut down, officially ending their luxury resort lifestyle in the warm lake water.
In the years since, Rochester has turned to science and ingenuity to keep the resident bird numbers under control. Park crews now track down shoreline nests to coat the eggs in oil or swap them out for wooden "dummy eggs." This tricks the mother goose into thinking the eggs are still viable, so she won't lay any more eggs, allowing the population to naturally decrease over time.
To read the full scoop on the city’s ongoing battle with the birds and see the community's reaction firsthand, check out the complete report on MPR News.
Story Source: Minnesota Public Radio News Website
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Gallery Credit: Dom DiFurio & Jacob Osborn
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