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• <br />September /October 2000 <br />UM goose expert gets DNR' s top honor <br />Dr. Jim Cooper, who retired in June as associate professor at the University of Minnesota, <br />Fisheries and Wildlife Department, was honored with the DNR Commissioner' s <br />Meritorious Service Award on July 28 at a retirement ceremony. The agency presents the <br />award in recognition of significant professional and academic contributions to its mission. <br />" This is the DNR' s highest level of praise," said Tim Bremicker, Wildlife Division <br />director. " I can think of no one in the past two decades more deserving than Jim <br />Cooper." <br />Cooper, a nationally recognized expert in urban goose management, is credited with <br />helping the DNR develop and oversee Minnesota' s highly lauded Twin Cities metro <br />Canada goose management program. Over the past 20 years, Cooper and his students <br />have removed more than 65,000 geese from the Twin Cities area. The management <br />program and goose hunting seasons have kept the once - burgeoning metro breeding <br />goose population at a stable, socially acceptable level. It is now imitated by many city and <br />state agencies across the United States. <br />Having completed his doctoral dissertation on Canada geese in Manitoba, Cooper quickly <br />became a key resource for the DNR as it reestablished Canada geese in the 1970s. By <br />1982, he had teamed up with the DNR to develop policies and programs for removing <br />overabundant geese in urban communities where hunting was not a management option. <br />Armed with data he and his students collected over the years, Cooper successfully <br />defended efforts to remove Twin Cities nuisance geese from lawsuits brought by animal <br />rights activists. Particularly successful and innovative has been his work since 1995 to <br />have adult nuisance geese processed and donated to local food shelves. <br />" Jim works hard to resolve urban goose issues and has met regularly with us and with <br />community leaders, citizens, and animal protectionists," said Bremicker. " He always <br />maintains the highest level of professional courtesy and personal respect for everyone <br />concerned." <br />-4 <br />