Golf Course, Nature Clash in Roseburg, Oregon

Stewart Park in Roseburg, Oregon, has been a long time stop on the Pacific Flyway allowing waterfowl a place to rest on the way to where ever they are going. It has become a safe place to raise young if the assorted broods I saw yesterday are any indication. Baby ducklings played as a nutria (a big rat/beaver looking thing that was once used for fur) swam past.

Goslings imitating their mother threatened to attack Nina Nechlina if the bread crumbs didn't come fast enough to satisfy those ravenous little beaks. All seemed like good family fun for all species involved. A loaf of bread or a bag of almost anything will surely keep all entertained for hours.

Geese by nature are grazers, that means GRASS EATERS!! Guess what is right next door to this magnificent bird paradise? A huge open expanse of grass (meaning safe from predators and good eating guaranteed) used to play that infamous addiction called GOLF. Well, the battle lines are forming on how to keep the golf course free of goose poop and the big noisy, nasty critters that invade every morning and evening in this season of migratory fowl breeding. How does the city of Roseburg plan to get rid of the geese? ( a special note: Barbara from Stewart Parkway Golf Course did return my call. Nothing can be done during the nesting, baby raising time of year. Oregon State Dept of Fish and Wildlife is considering what if anything will be done in regard to population control.)As for right now, nothing can be done until the Oregon Dept of Fish and Wildlife gives it's approval. When that is done, what happens then?

I am left to assume the worst. That is, in some manner, death will come to our marauding grass getters since relocation would just have them back later the same day. Geese nest not far from where they are born. If a nest is destroyed, she will simply build another one. If a mother goose is killed, some other mother goose will step in to shelter the orphans. A dad will step in to shelter the young and will valiantly protect the little ones even to the point of his own death in protecting them. Geese are odd animals, they form strong and lasting family ties. They come to the aid of each other, they love each other, and bond only as true families can. As the lone goose that stands by the side of the road on Stewart Parkway, who has evaded getting his picture taken, can attest mating is usually for life. Those left behind remember and mourn seldom or if ever taking a mate ever again.

Who wins in this situation? The geese are a pest, a health hazard and a public nuisance on the gold course. (An added note from a long time poultry grower: any bird poops one and a half times what they take in as food since they eliminate what would usually be liquids as the little white streaks in the droppings. Birds don't make urine and simply have runny droppings from water saturated green feeds like grass. PS: Bread is not a natural or healthy food for birds either unless it has been toasted or is dry like croutons in a package of stuffing.). But they are also a beloved part of the city and the culture of our town generating a wealth of secondary income from bird feeders, picnickers and bird watchers.