Messy geese breed innovation

FIDO may not be able to catch a Frisbee or fetch slippers, but it may turn out to be the city of Cedar Rapids' best friend when it comes to shooing away geese.

FIDO, short for Fowl Intercept & Dispersal Officer, is a remote-controlled, bright-orange Styrofoam craft that hovers along the ground and scatters gathering geese. City parks workers are using six FIDO units, painted to look like toothy hounds, to scare geese away from the McGrath Amphitheater downtown, the city's golf courses and Noelridge Park.

With flocks of geese and their droppings causing problems at multiple outdoor attractions, the city looked into several goose-scattering options. Officials considered border collies and other remote-control devices, but all carried fat price tags. Then the city got together with Quiet Fliers, a remote-control airplane club, to design a less expensive but effective alternative.

Daniel Gibbons, Cedar Rapids' parks superintendent, said he and other employees have been deploying FIDO on a daily basis with hopes of persuading the geese that the amphitheater and other attractions are a lousy place to nest this spring. He said, so far, FIDO is doing a great job. And though the geese may be scattered, none are harmed by FIDO.

The city deserves praise for partnering with local volunteers to come up with a tool to help solve a nagging problem. That's a process we hope gets duplicated many times in the future.

And in this case, innovation helped out a city department that has tried every goose control option that's allowed under state and federal rules, from round-ups to pond and riverbank prairie plantings. Gibbons said he hears often from residents with their own ideas for curtailing the goose population, but in many cases, those ideas would run afoul of regulations dropped from above.

FIDO's true test will come as the weather warms and locals flock to parks, golf courses and the long-awaited first full year of events at the amphitheater.