Jeers to Michigan’s Natural Resources Commission for unveiling a new policy to allow lake associations, golf courses, municipalities and other parties to hire federal crews to round up and kill Canada geese.

Friends of Animals abhors this new policy, which if approved on Oct. 10, will replace a longstanding goose relocation program that state officials claim is ineffective. Michigan doesn’t have a Canada goose problem—is has an attitude problem about cleaning up after wildlife.

Please email Commission Chair Tom Baird (tombaird51@gmail.com) and members of the Commission at NRC@michigan.gov and tell them not to approve the plan at their next meeting.

State officials also claim that the problem is not how many birds there are but where the birds tend to congregate: near waterfront lawns and parks in cities and suburbs. Complaints about goose droppings, molted feathers and water pollution are common from late June through early August, the roughly four to six weeks when adults molt their flight feathers and are unable to fly.

Officials are poised to implement a pilot program for 2025 with a limited number of sites permitted for round up to assess costs, logistics, landowner interest, and capacity. The goal is for an operational program to be in place for 2026.

We have a better idea for a pilot program: Clean up after the geese at these sites. A sane, simple long-term solution is goose poop scooper equipment made by Georgia-based Tow and Collect (www.towandcollect.com). There are also some basic habitat modification methods that keep the geese from congregating—such as planting aquatic plants that are at least two-feet high. If Canada geese can’t get to the water quickly, they won’t congregate there.

Municipalities can also install anchored floating islands and load them with geese-friendly plants to create an out-of-the way places for eating and nesting.