New Brunswickers lament glut of geese

Many New Brunswickersare complaining about an increased Canada goose population, more than a decade after some of thebirds were brought into the provinceto benefit hunters.

Winston Jones of Riverview said 10 years ago, he was pleased to see a pair of the birds make their home on the river that flows by his dairy farm. Little did he know he would one day cringe at the sight of more geese landing on his fields.

"They eat so much grass," Jones said Wednesday. "They continuously eat, and if there's 500 of them around, it's like having 10 or 15 extra cows.

"We're growing grass to feed cows, not to feed geese."

Frank McKenna's Liberal government brought 3,500 Canada geese from Toronto and Mississauga, which didn't want them, to New Brunswick in the 1990s.

Kevin McAloney of the Canadian Wildlife Servicessaid they're getting more and more complaints about the geese. Farmers and municipalities are worried about the impact on water supplies and airports, McAloney said.

The wildlife service responded by giving hunters a 10-day extra season to shoot Canada geese earlier this month, he said.

The extra season has only been a partial success because hunting is not allowed in most municipalities, McAloney said.

"You know it's not a cure-all, because a large number of these resident geese are within municipal limits," McAloney said. "If you go around the traffic circle in Moncton, they breed there. It doesn't matter when you have [an extra] hunting season. A lot of those birds will never see a hunter."

Jones said his land is within the town limits of Riverview, so he's hoping the town will change its bylaw to allow hunters to get rid of some of the geese.