05-10-2006 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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that had not happened in prior years (Table 1). Trap injuries were lower (0.16 %) than last year, (0.32 %), with most injuries being broken toenails or minor scratches. Of the 1,496 adults transported to the processing plant (Figure 7), none died in transit. Most of the trap sites were locations where capture was done the previous year and most geese were caught at these sites (Figures 4a & 4b). Sites where trapping was two or more years ago (repeat sites) continued to increase while new sites declined. The trend of fewer new sites is expected to continue, because there are few Metro cities with substantial goose populations that have not implemented a management program. Similarly, as more populations are reduced to the point where annual trapping is unnecessary, repeat locations should eventually constitute the majority of trapping sites. Banding - -We continued our cooperative banding with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. A total of 1,387 geese were trapped at eight Metro and seven North Central Minnesota Goose Management Block locations (Table 2a and 2b). Like past years, the banding work kept the crews fully employed during the trapping period, an important factor in recruiting and retaining skilled crew members. In addition, bands placed on rural Metro Area geese will provide a measure of in- migration, if any, from rural wetlands to managed suburban and urban breeding sites. Minnesota Canada goose population changes - -In recent years, indicators of the Metro Area population change, such as the mean number of geese trapped per site (Figure 5), and the number of new damage sites reported (Figure 6), suggested the continuation of a long -term Twin Cities goose population decline. As you may recall, the results of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources -Goose Program Metro Canada Goose Population Survey showed a population drop from a peak of 24,471 in 1994 to 17,456 in 2004. This is in stark contrast with Canada geese breeding elsewhere in Minnesota. The results of the MNDNR spring Canada goose breeding survey shows a 2005 population outside of the Metro of 320,754 which is down from 374,747 in 2004 ( Maxson 2005, Minnesota Spring Canada Goose Survey, Unpub. MNDNR Report). Overall, Maxson reports that the state population has grown an average of 5% per year in the past 5 years. While the current rate is an improvement over the 10 +% of earlier years, it still is alarming given that the state goose population goal is 50% of the 2005 population. Canada Goose Program Report 2005 2 - 1 4 -