No one willing to control canada geese

Improved pastureland has contributed to the growing numbers of canada geese. Picture / Wairarapa Times-Age

The country's canada goose population appears to be getting out of control, but no one seems willing to take responsibility for controlling the big birds.

Farmers say Fish and Game organisations are responsible for controlling the game bird, but Fish and Game says it cannot do it alone and wants to see the canada goose's classification as a game bird removed unless landowners help control them.

The excess numbers have meant the birds have become a pest to farmers because they can munch through acres of feed within hours.

"Fish and Game here has always had the view geese should be managed as a game bird while it was economically sensible to do so, and it [hasn't seemed] to be economically sensible in the last few years," said Fish and Game Otago manager Niall Watson.

Canada goose management was at a crossroads, he said.

Fish and Game Otago sees it as a realistic alternative to take geese off the game schedule if it can't get co-operation and contributions from landowners, he said.

But farmers are in no doubt who is responsible for keeping a lid on the burgeoning population, with numbers growing throughout the South Island and southern North Island. Farmers at a recent conference of South Island high country committees of Federated Farmers rejected a call to remove the game status of geese, saying to do so would absolve Fish and Game of its obligation to control the birds.

Watson said Otago's Canada goose population was 4833 at June last year. Culling last year removed 2788 birds, but with inward migration and breeding the population was back up to about 4500.

Watson said farmers needed to appreciate they were helping boost bird numbers by improving their habitat through pasture development, especially at the Loganburn Dam, Lake Onslow and Falls Dam.

"These are going to be potentially geese problem areas. They can't turn around and say, 'We are entitled to do this but you take the responsibility'."

But farmers say they should not be penalised or criticised for doing something they are entitled to do, such as sowing new pasture.

Watson said farmers needed to contribute to the cost of culls, such as meeting the cost of hiring aircraft.

It was unrealistic for farmers to think Fish and Game carry the total burden of this just because they are a game bird, Watson said.

Last year, Fish and Game Otago spent $40,000 culling geese and he estimated there were about 100 keen geese hunters in the province. The organisation's role was to manage the birds, not control them, although it did have to take account of the adverse effects on others.

If geese were reclassified as a pest, Watson said farmers would be levied to control them and the work done by Fish and Game such as organising hunters, monitoring and meeting the cost of culls would disappear.

Trials showed poison was ineffective, while shooting also had limited success.

Conservation Minister Chris Carter is reviewing the game bird register and Watson said he was waiting to see the discussion paper.

- OTAGO DAILY TIMES