06-11-2003 Council Agenda - Laserfiche WebLink

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MAYOR Michael L Fahey COUNCIL Beverly Scalze Jim LaValle Steve Morelan Bob Peclersen 515 Little Canada Road, Little Canada, MN 55117 -1600 ADMINISTRATOR (651) 484 -2177 / FAX: (651) 484 -4538 Joel R. Hanson Email: cityhall @ci.little- canada.mn.us MEMORANDUM TO: Mayor Fahey & Members of the City Council FROM: Joel Hanson, City Administrator DATE: April 21, 2000 RE: Goose Control Program Since our last meeting, I have been doing some cursory research into various options for goose control that were discussed at our last Council meeting. The results are as follows: • According to Dr. James Cooper, egg addling is only permitted by special permit in experimental situations. Neither the City of Little Canada or any of our residents would be permitted to do lawful egg addling. (Dr. Cooper only undertakes this activity in the marshes around Twin Cities International Airport. It is done to enhance control effectiveness in that area because trapping is difficult due to the shear size of the marsh areas.) • Egg addling is four times more expensive than a trapping program as it is much more labor intensive to locate nesting pairs. (Dr. Cooper mentioned they just completed a process by the airport where four crews spent a total of 32 hours and addled the eggs in only 20 nests.) • Egg addling is approximately 25% as effective as trapping from a biological standpoint. (Addling becomes effective over time as natural mortality takes more and more of the adult geese and no young geese are left to replace them.) • Dr. Cooper indicated as part of our contract, they are more than willing to capture a pair of mated geese and band them. When trapping occurs, the geese with bands around their legs are released and left to remain in the area. This will be undertaken at no additional cost as part of the normal contract if we so desire. It is currently being done in some of their other contract arrangements. • I attempted to get a count on the number of geese in the area, but it was difficult to do so given their current mobility. I did not notice any geese on east Savage Lake, but saw between 10 -15 on west Savage Lake. In Pioneer Park, there were only two geese present, but droppings along the trails indicated a much heavier population had recently been there. \\CLCSRVOI \HOME. \KrisP \CORRESP\ 2000 \Coose Control Progam.d - 3 -