Too much goose poop? Don’t feed the birds, says Wascana Centre

It’s that time of year again in Wascana Park; Canadian geese nest and eat there, while human visitors enjoy a nice stroll, if they can avoid stepping in a new pile of goose droppings.

On average, adult geese poop one to two pounds every day, according to Wascana Centre ecologist Sarah Romuld.

But she said that humans feeding geese makes the nuisance of goose poop all the more unsightly, and messy.

Romuld explained that geese don’t need the extra food they’re often fed by people, bread or otherwise.

“When you’re feeding them bread that’s very calorie-rich, you are speeding up their growth to where their body is not prepared,” meaning geese will poop more, Romuld said.

“Bread is in fact feeding birds candy. There’s no nutritional value in it.”

Giving geese or other birds popcorn or cheesies — examples Romuld has seen a few times in the park — is even worse, she said.

Along with the extra excrement from all that bread and other human snacks, geese’s wings and bodies overdevelop, making them heavier and longer. It makes the joints holding the wings to their bodies bend and twist in ways they’re not supposed to do, Romuld said.

She added that if park visitors remain stubborn and insist on feeding geese, then they should only be giving them spinach, lettuce, parsley or barley seeds.

Wascana Park has enough foliage and vegetation for geese to sustain themselves, she said.

Exact goose numbers hard to nail down

Romuld said that about 250 to 300 geese nest in Wascana Park every year.

But she cautioned that that number is a very rough estimate, because a goose visiting the park may not necessarily nest there. It could be nesting at a nearby golf course or a city-operated park in another part of Regina.

And the number changes significantly from year to year, she said.

Using 300 as a multiplier, that means nesting geese in the park poop about 450 pounds of waste there every day.

Romuld said Wascana Park crews do work to clear off pathways of the droppings, but not grassed areas.

She said poop or poop particles that make their ways into Wascana Lake add more phosphorus and nitrogen to the water.

Romuld said it’s hard to pinpoint how much of an impact that will have on the lake, because it’s part of a larger ecosystem with different animals and organisms using it and living in it.