Cedar Rapids sets hearing on proposed ban for feeding geese

CEDAR RAPIDS - The City Council decided Monday night to hold a public hearing on May 14 to consider a change in a city ordinance to ban the feeding of geese and other waterfowl and wildlife on city property.

The council's Public Safety Committee earlier this month recommended the change at the urging of Daniel Gibbins, the city's parks superintendent.

The proposed feeding ban would include a system of fines like those now in place for leash-law violations and failing to clean up after pets on city property. The first offense in a year would cost $75, the second, $150, the third, $300, under the proposed new ordinance.

Gibbins noted this week that the Iowa Department of Natural Resources has recommended that the city impose a ban on the feeding of wildlife on city property and a series of fines to put teeth into the ban. Feeding makes it easy for geese to crowd certain city parks where feeding is common and leave an accumulation of feces behind, Gibbins said.

The city will continue to round up and relocate geese in June, an effort designed to take young geese into rural Iowa in hopes they will come to call that home.