Hunting, slaughtering could be next as Cedar Rapids copes with geese

CEDAR RAPIDS - Geese blocking bike trails around Cedar Lake, messing with backswings at golf courses and clogging up parks could soon be on notice.

Cedar Rapids is considering legalizing the hunting of Canada geese in certain rural parts of the city. Moreover, up to 400 geese would be rounded up for slaughter, with the meat possibly being donated to food pantries, according to a plan being proposed by the city.

'We've tried all other alternatives before moving to population control,” said Daniel Gibbins, superintendent of Cedar Rapids parks. 'We get a steady stream of requests to do something more significant about the geese.”

At a minimum, geese can be a nuisance. But they also can pose public safety risks.

Residents could get to weigh in on the city plans during a May 24 public hearing. Following the hearing, the City Council would vote on the plan at a future meeting, possibly in June.

Cedar Rapids faces a 'chronic over-population of geese” despite numerous preventive measures since the mid-1990s, according to city documents supporting the plan. Cedar Rapids has about 2,000 geese, which is too many for the area, the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has told city officials, Gibbins said.

Over the years, the city has tried several measures of goose management - including annual goose roundups that relocate adult geese to distant Iowa lakes. But the geese still return.

Prairies have been built on shorelines to discourage their habitat. No-feeding-the-geese ordinances have been enacted. And the city has tried to scare them off with decoys, lasers, sprays, distress calls and even radio controlled geese chasers called 'Fowl Intercept & Dispersal Officer” or FIDO.

City officials plan to submit a letter to the Iowa DNR to assist with the new goose roundup, including processing the captured adult geese.

Gibbins said the city would like to donate the processed meat to a food pantry, but those details are still being developed.

The city has not yet identified a locker to work with, but the price the city would pay is likely about $6 or $7 per fowl, Gibbins said.

Cedar Rapids would amend its firearms ordinance to allow the hunting of waterfowl on 'certain private, undeveloped lands within the city limits under appropriate circumstances.” The hunting would be allowed only south of Highway 30 and west of Interstate 380.

Under the proposed ordinance, hunters properly licensed by the Iowa DNR and following the agency's rules could use a shotgun to hunt geese. Gibbins said the hunting season would begin in September and would have varying dates until January.

The city currently allows deer hunting in designated areas within city limits, Gibbins said.

The hunting and processing options came from recommendations in the Iowa DNR wildlife management manual.

'We certainly concur with this,” said Kevin Baskins, a spokesman for the Iowa DNR. 'Obviously geese are one of those controversial species, kind of like deer. Certainly if a nuisance needs to be addressed, doing it in a way that benefits less fortunate parts of population is a good way of doing it.”

Baskins said Des Moines has begun using this approach to address its overpopulation of deer. Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said he supports working with wildlife experts to find the best solution.

'I do know that we have a big problem and need to find a way to reduce population,” Corbett said. 'It has developed into a real nuisance in our parks and on our trails.”