Canada goose population dwindles at Forsythe refuge
By JERROLD STAAS HAUGHT For The Press, (609) 569-7483

Canada geese living at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge have created such a problem that officials this morning will capture and dispose of more than three-quarters of the population there.

Starting at 5:30 a.m., a team of wildlife experts, biologists and volunteers from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will begin rounding up and euthanizing 450 geese - the most allowed by federal regulations.

All of the Canada geese captured this morning will be subjected to a lethal dose of carbon dioxide and then buried on refuge grounds, according to Jorge Coppen, a biologist with the National Wildlife Refuge Service.

" They' ll actually be buried in an area (of the refuge) we call the bone yard," Coppen said.

U.S. Fish and Wildlife officials issued the Forsythe refuge a permit to cull the Canada geese population, based on a continuing threat to other bird species.

Officials at the 45,000-acre national refuge in Brigantine and Galloway Township say the large, brown geese have a negative effect on migratory birds along the Atlantic flyway - a major migration route along the northeast coast.

The problem, says the Forsythe refuge, is the sub-species of Canada geese that live there eat away at vegetation normally consumed by other waterfowl during migration.

" This is the food we would like to set the table with in the fall," said Steve Atzert, project leader at the Forsythe refuge.

Atzert said 585 Canada geese have made the refuge their permanent home, ignoring a natural instinct to migrate with other species.

Over the past 30 to 40 years, Canada geese have learned that food is so readily available in places like the Forsythe refuge that they don' t move out during the winter months, Atzert said.

These so-called resident Canada geese make a steady diet of the refuge' s lush, green grasses.

But in the early part of the fall, when the muddy banks of the marsh should be overgrown with vegetation, the geese have already eaten away large patches of grass. Other birds, like migratory Canada geese, have little food to rebuild their fat stores, Atzert said.

There has been a huge population boom of Canada geese in the last 10 years, according to Atzert. In 1990, there were 238,000 birds in the northeast region - 13 states from Virginia to Maine.

The most recent count puts the Canada goose population at more than one million.

New Jersey has roughly 85,000 resident Canada geese. Wildlife officials would like to see that number cut by more than one-half, Coppen said.

" They want to see it come down to 41,000," he said.

The Forsythe refuge will be closed to the public during today' s culling.

Killing 450 geese on 45,000 acres? Why don' t they alllow hunters in the area. They could possibly get additional permit fees from the hunters and I guarantee the cost of capturing and euthanizing 450 geese is going to be high. Something doesn' t sound right to me, but I really don' t know anything about geese.

If nothing else why don' t they use the geese to feed the hungry?

Seems like such a waste.

Good ideas guys, Looks like they would open a special permit hunt to generate funds, or even give the meat to local shelters or charity organizations, or heck transplant them to another area of the country. Stuff like this, the sensless killing and wasting of meat, and then publishing it for everyone to see is just the kind of fuel PETA needs to keep their tanks full in their fight against outdoorsmen like ourselves.[:' (][:' (][:@][:@]

And we still cant shoot them down here.[:' (]

THATS CRAP![:@]
those stupid idiots!

Thats the pitts