City Government
Wanna Give Your Dog A Goose? Try Ann Morrison Park
December 7, 2012 
After years of trying everything from shaking and oiling eggs in goose nests to “goose herding” border collies, Boise Parks Dept. this week has designated the eastern two-thirds of Ann Morrison Park as “off leash” areas for dogs. Like many issues in local government, this one has gone to the dogs–and it may work.
The GUARDIAN has followed this story for several years and it seems like each time they come up with a new plan for chasing the geese out of the parks, something goes astray. Warm Springs Golf Course owns a fowl dog which has been effective at clearing the fairways of geese. At Ann Morrison Park as soon as coyote silhouettes were installed, someone rearranged a couple of them into a suggestive pose which drew laughs.
The PARK BOARDtalked turkey about geese in 2009. By December the GOOSE QUESTION was still unanswered.
In March 2011 we posted about the GOLF DOG.
A Parks Dept. spokesman told us with a straight face, “We don’t want the dogs to actually harass the geese, but if they are playing ball and happen to startle the birds into leaving, that’s OK.”
Here are the off leash area MAP and RULES
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Dec 7, 2012, 12:45 pm
If you sit in the SUB at BSU and look out over the intramural field, you will often see hundreds and hundreds of geese. Perhaps they play intramurals. I used to sit there and wonder how much goose poop was crushed into the soil of that field.
Dec 7, 2012, 1:31 pm
Who is going to define harassment? I see this temporary at best. Dawn till dusk will just keep the geese away during that time. While many geese are local, they are well known to fly at night especially during migration season.
They need to implement strategies that work at night or when dogs are not present. Audio deterrents may work. Or maybe create something like the RoboDuck and call it the RoboDog.
EDITOR NOTE–Clancy, propane cannons are commonly used, but the folks in Park View Apartments might think they are under siege.
Dec 7, 2012, 2:53 pm
My dogs are faster than the geese and can probably pluck them right out of the air like a Frisbee. Question is will I get in trouble for the numerous dead geese per hour or will I get paid for services rendered? They are up on their shots so the dead birds could be given to the soup kitchens for food stock. Can I by a stamp for taking them with dogs?
One simple way that airports control these birds is by mowing all the grass very short at just the right time of the year thus no little birds to return to nest year after year. The bird dogs and such placate the environmental types but the reality is the airports shoot and kill lots of wildlife to reduce the hazards of landing in the Hudson river. Basically if the birds can successfully nest they return over and over to the same nest.
Dec 7, 2012, 7:55 pm
Nature will out. We have built it and they have come.
There are two separate conditions here. Daytime and Nighttime use by the Brant (Canada) Geese. Daytime they feed, nighttime they “roost” in safe places. They like to roost near the place(s) they have nested, so in long grasses near water is the preferred safety zone for nesting and nighttime roosting. They can fly many miles away for day-time feeding. I suspect that the reason the perception of a problem continues is that the solution requires a long-term (decade or longer) plan and action.
Or, we could just yield some of the spaces to the geese and learn to live with it.
Dec 8, 2012, 11:08 am
If I understand this right. Now we are turning the parks over to dogs.
So how do we get rid of the dogs? What are we going to do to chase the dogs out?
Dec 8, 2012, 3:51 pm
“Basically if the birds can successfully nest they return over and over to the same nest.”
Yep–so what about thosed little covens of marsh canes and that island they LOVE to nest on? How are those occupations controlled? Not.
Prediction: Ann Morrison Park will soon be filled with happy dogs running amuck. Go for it, fellas.
Running ’em off won’t solve the problem, though. I’m in favor of culling them with an annual shoot, then give them to anyone who wants one or two. Lots of people think honker meat is no good, wrong! Filet the breast, marinate it in herbs ‘n spices,then barbecue. Delicious.
Dec 9, 2012, 5:51 pm
Some very simple solutions have been suggested–dogs let loose for a bit, barbecue for the homeless but my prediction is the city will hire more employees who will teach the dogs how to read the map so they do not stray into the wrong area. No doubt couger sightings will increase thereby enhancing the jobs of people sworn to protect the public. They may even set up decontamination booths at the exits from the park so e-coli is not spread to the general population. What a progressive city
Dec 15, 2012, 10:28 am
Iv’e been playing in that park for over 40 years. The geese are there because they like it. BackInTheDay there were more nice places to land, like farm fields and natural areas that are gone now. Good job geese, I’d go to the park too, wait, I do, 300 days a year.