First Duluth goose ’roundup’ kills 300 birds – Duluth News Tribune

DULUTH — As efforts to restore wild rice to the St. Louis River continue, Canada geese have posed a persistent challenge, feeding heavily on the grain and causing considerable mortality before poorly established young plants are able to withstand the onslaught of black-billed birds.

That’s why last fall the city approved a new goose-management plan authorizing authorities to cull up to 300 Canada geese annually via a “roundup” while the birds are molting and incapable of flight.

In late June, the first of these captures occurred, resulting in the deaths of 300 birds — the maximum take allowed under the city’s new policy.

Similar captures across the river in Superior killed 249 additional birds this year, said David Grandmaison, an officer for the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, who also serves as the coordinator of an interstate initiative to restore wild rice to the St. Louis River estuary, once rich in the native grain. Superior has allowed for the removals for a number of years now.

But unless both of the respective Twin Ports cities permitted similar operations, the impact continued to diminish, and Grandmaison referred to

Duluth as “a critical partner”

in bringing goose numbers down to a point where the birds were no longer decimating rice beds before they could take hold.

Steve Kuchera / 2022 file / Duluth News Tribune

Geese quickly surmised that they were safe on the Duluth side of the river when they got spooked in Superior.

“Geese are wicked smart,” Grandmaison told the News Tribune last fall. “They know where they’re going to be protected from any sort of disturbance. And they definitely know where the resources are on the water.”

As for this year — the first for removing birds from Duluth — Grandmaison said: “I would consider the roundup a success, given our ability to strategically remove geese from areas where they have been causing significant damage to wild rice plantings.”

A roundup typically involves about a dozen natural resource professionals herding geese into an enclosure where they are euthanized using carbon dioxide.

Some groups from near and far have weighed in with their concerns and objections to birds being destroyed, even if it is in support of another worthy cause, namely restoring growths of wild rice to the St. Louis River.

Priscilla Feral, president of Connecticut-based Friends of Animals, wrote: “Wild rice habitat has been destroyed by humans. They’ve imposed environmental hazards upon themselves by allowing years of unbridled mining activities in the state. It’s absurd that DNR is touting an archaic, myopic plan such as killing Canada geese — a federally protected species — to help restore wild rice. A new flock will just replace the one exterminated. The best long-term solutions rely on using exclosure fencing to deter Canada geese.”

She went on to say: “It’s not the fault of Canada geese that the St. Louis estuary is on the federal list of polluted Great Lakes waterways. Gassing geese won’t help get the estuary any closer to being taken off the list. It will take state leaders who are willing to take on the polluters and put the environment and Canada geese first over greed.”

Samples of the dead birds have been submitted to the Wisconsin State Lab of Hygiene for testing to determine if they are suitable for donation to local food pantries in the Twin Ports area, Grandmaison said. In the past, they have been donated to the Lake Superior Zoo to be used as feed for non-avian animals in captivity.

Other control techniques have been deployed with limited success

, including efforts to scare geese away from young rice beds and exclosures designed to keep geese away from the planted patches. Those measures alone, however, have proven inadequate to deter the wily geese and return wild rice to a self-sustaining status, Grandmaison said.

The combined benefits of the various controls, including roundups, appear to hold promise, according to Grandmaison.

Steve Kuchera / 2022 file / Duluth News Tribune

“Wild rice density is increasing. We are observing expanding rice beds at core restoration sites, and wild rice is beginning to pop up at additional locations in the estuary where we have not seeded,” he said.

Eventually, the goose roundups may become unnecessary to sustaining wild rice restoration efforts if the plants take hold.

“Dense wild rice beds are more resilient to goose herbivory than sparse beds,” Grandmaison said. “Our goal is to increase density to the point where herbivory management becomes unnecessary.”

Wild rice, known as manoomin to Indigenous residents and their ancestors, revered the grain as a spiritual gift.

But industrialization and the corresponding decline in water quality led to the steady disappearance of wild rice from the landscape, until recent efforts to reverse the trend.

“The city of Duluth is pleased to support the efforts of our partners to restore wild rice to the St. Louis River estuary, understanding that one necessary means to that culturally and ecologically important end is humane removal of some geese, at least on a temporary basis, ” said Jim Filby Williams, Duluth’s director of parks, properties and libraries.

Grandmaison suspects the wild rice restoration efforts will need to be prolonged in order to prove effective.

“Wild rice restoration is a long-term commitment by all of the partners involved. Ideally, we continue with a stewardship ethic that honors and respects manoomin into perpetuity,” he said.

This story was updated at 10:25 a.m. July 26 to include commentary from Priscilla Feral. It was originally posted at 7:50 a.m. July 26.

This story was updated at 9:28 p.m. July 26 to correct the attribution for the following quote: “Wild rice restoration is a long-term commitment by all of the partners involved. Ideally, we continue with a stewardship ethic that honors and respects manoomin into perpetuity.” The News Tribune regrets the error.