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'Don't feed the geese,' say Montour Preserve officials

Canada geese seem to love outdoor recreation areas. They come and go, but many overstay their welcome.

WASHINGTONVILLE, Pa. — As the weather gets warmer, people will be spending time at outdoor parks like the Montour Preserve near Washingtonville. According to Montour Area Recreation Commission officials, more than 110,000 people visited the preserve last year. In addition to being a popular place for people, it's an attractive spot for Canada geese.

"It's our job, essentially, to strike the right balance between the number of geese that are there and the number of visitors," said Bob Stoudt, the director of the Montour Area Recreation Commission.

This week the group renewed its contract with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), allowing them to monitor the population of geese at the Montour Preserve starting in March.

"If it's more than the capacity of the lake. What they will do is oil the eggs so that the eggs don't develop. The mothers will stay there at the nest. The egg doesn't develop, and hopefully, the mother moves on, and it doesn't become an issue."

Stoudt says the worst-case scenario is euthanizing geese, but there is no issue at the moment. Officials say the best way to prevent euthanizing the geese is not to feed them in the first place.

"Once the geese have been fed, they're going to stay, and they're going to keep coming back. Each weekend when families come back for picnics, the geese come up to the pavilions hoping for a handout, and more often than not, they get it, and it just continues and perpetuates the problem."

If officials do nothing, the number of geese continues to increase.

"If there are too many geese, the fecal coliform levels in the water get too high, then we have to close it to boating, fishing, to people there at the lake."

Stoudt says at the moment, there is no issue with geese at the Montour Preserve, and he hopes to keep it that way.

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