More goose poop, more problems

By Clara Lincolnhol

Chris Compton, owner of a company called Goose Busters, has spent nearly 30 years addressing human-goose conflicts. Over the years, the goose population has continued to grow, especially in more populated areas, he said.

“We have them all over,” he said. “They’re building up in Lansing quite a bit. Ann Arbor’s a big area. Troy, Detroit, Rochester Hills and Auburn Hills too.” 

Nearly extinct in the mid-20th century due to over-hunting, a whopping 280,000 Canada geese now live in Michigan, according to the Department of Natural Resources.

That also means there’s a lot of goose poop. One adult goose can produce up to two pounds of feces a day. Too much waste could cause environmental problems, research shows.

Read more: More goose poop, more problems

Goose poop contains high levels of phosphorus and nitrogen, which in large quantities cause eutrophication, or the growth of algal blooms in water bodies, according to a study from Kristianstad University in Sweden.

Excessive algal blooms are harmful to organisms living in or near the water. Algae overgrowth uses up all the dissolved oxygen in the water, essentially choking out and killing aquatic plants and animals, said Alan Steinman, a researcher at the Robert B. Annis Water Resources Institute at Grand Valley State University.

Decomposing algae sinks to the bottom of a water body, releasing nutrients and potent toxins into the water and surrounding ecosystem, which can kill other organisms that drink the water, he said.

Phosphorus is typically a limited resource in an environment, which prevents excessive algae growth. But people have been inadvertently adding more phosphorus to waterways through fertilizer runoff, he said.

“We’re basically providing much more [phosphorus], faster than the algae needs,”  Steinman said. “They’re saturated with phosphorus and they’re very happy to be as long as they have enough light, and warm temperatures for the blue-greens to grow.”

Nitrogen is another nutrient that algae thrive on. Unlike phosphorus, nitrogen pollution is harder to control because it originates from the atmosphere.

What About Goose Poop?

Steinman says more studies need to be done on the direct impact of goose waste on water quality.

“All of these estimates that go into the equation that determine the total load of phosphorus from goose poop, there’s just going to be a lot of uncertainty,” he said.

The impact of goose droppings is more noticeable in areas with high concentrations of geese. Otherwise, their influence is harder to measure, Steinman said.

He recommends people avoid water with visible algal blooms and keep pets from drinking it. While toxic algal blooms are rarely fatal for humans, pets are at higher risk of poisoning and death.

Swimming in such water can cause skin irritation for humans but is not usually dangerous.

“I can’t explain why anyone would want to swim in an algal bloom, you could also get contact dermatitis and have some skin reactions, but it’s not fatal,” Steinman said.

Goose feces is also home to bacteria, parasites and diseases that can make you sick, according to a study conducted by the U.S. Department of Agriculture National Wildlife Research Center. 

Although human illness from goose poop can happen, it’s very rare, says Barb Avers, waterfowl and wetland specialist at the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. 

“It’s very low risk unless for some reason you’re handling the poop,” she said. 

Climate Change Brings Year-Round Residents

Michigan’s increasingly mild winters are encouraging more geese to become year-round residents, eliminating the need for migration. And if they migrate, they don’t go far, Avers said.

Thirty to 40 years ago, the geese would migrate to southern Illinois and Tennessee, Avers said. But now the birds travel only as far south as Ohio. The historic wintering grounds are seeing far fewer geese because of climate change, she said.

“They’ll go south basically as far as they need to,” Avers said. “What I have noticed is them doing a lot of bouncing back and forth.”

Geese need access to unfrozen bodies of water and exposed grasses for feeding. Milder winters mean ponds and rivers don’t stay frozen the whole season and there’s less snow cover, so the geese don’t need to leave to find food, she said.

Human Habits Attract Geese

The highest concentrations of geese are in the areas with the most people. As a result, conflicts are common. Humans have unintentionally created the perfect habitat by creating man-made ponds, maintaining lush grass lawns and eliminating natural goose predators, Avers said.

To manage the booming goose population, the DNR follows several protocols. In the spring, nests in areas with abundant geese are destroyed. Throughout the rest of the year they employ scare tactics, using loud noises and dogs to frighten geese off of properties, she said.

Wildlife managers used catch and relocation methods until the avian flu reached Michigan in 2022. But flu aside, capture and relocation became ineffective because of how abundant the geese are.

“We were starting to relocate around 10,000 geese a year and we were simply just running out of places to put them,” Avers said.

The DNR developed the Resident Canada Goose Program to address the problem. When geese are rounded up they unfortunately will have to be euthanized to avoid the risk of spreading avian flu, she said.

Human versus goose – a complicated battle

In the meantime, Goose Busters is one of many Michigan businesses and organizations that work to control the goose population through scare tactics.

“In the spring we take the eggs but the rest of the year we just chase the birds off with our border collie dogs,” Compton said.

People call businesses like Goose Busters for help when they are experiencing “human-goose conflicts” like aggressive geese, and abundant goose poop on their property, events many are familiar with, he said.

The average citizen can typically scare geese away from their property. Sometimes the presence of a dog is enough to get the birds to leave. But you cannot harm the geese on your property, as the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act protects the birds, said Avers.

However, hunting geese is allowed within specific parameters set by the Michigan state government. You must receive a permit, can shoot only five geese a day and hunt only in certain locations. The hunting season runs from September until February, she said.

Egg destruction is only permitted in specific locations, after landowners prove they have tried other removal methods, and meet other eligibility requirements. Landowners must also participate in nest destruction training through the DNR before they are permitted to remove eggs on their property.

Another way to discourage geese from showing up at a water body in the first place is by planting tall grasses along the banks. Geese like easy access, said Steinman, the water researcher at Grand Valley State.

And not only will the geese be less likely to show up, but the plants act as a buffer to keep their waste out of the water,  he said.

“If there’s any kind of gradient, it’ll [nutrients] flow down towards the lake and those root structures will help capture those nutrients,” Steinman said.