November 2013 - Parks & Recreation - 50

USDA Wildlife Services

NUISANCE WILDLIFE

48

are particularly prevalent on golf
courses, beaches, ponds, lakes, rivers, and open areas of public and
business parks. Although beautiful
creatures, each adult Canada goose
deposits about one pound of feces
per day, which causes no end to problems for stewards of public space.
While the physical " leave-behinds "
are objectionable enough, greater issues arise from enrichment of nearby
waters from nutrient pollution and
the potential threat of disease transmission from E. coli bacteria and other pathogens.
To compound the problem, geese
are prolific and successful breeders.
Both parents defend the nest and
protect their young. Egg oiling and
egg addling are effective for future
population control, but these methods will not reduce existing populations. Deterrents rarely work for
any length of time, even active deterrents such as pyrotechnics, predator decoys, harassment and other
methods. One nonlethal form of control that does work is the consistent
use of sheep-herding dogs, such as
border collies, but only when they are
employed on a daily basis.
The Chicago Park District (CPD)
uses border collies as part of a comprehensive program to deter geese
and seagulls from its 26 miles of
Lake Michigan shoreline (www.
parksand recreation.org/2012/August/Chi cago-Beaches-Go-HighTech). The collies do an excellent
job and are well-supported by the
public, but the annual cost for CPD
may approach $100,000 for dawnto-dark coverage by private contractors for the entire beach season.
Some park and recreation agencies
report good success with limited daily visits by trained dogs at a cost of
around $10,000 for the season.

Parks & Recreation

Wild Pigs
" The whole state is under siege! " says
Valerie Carter, resource management
biologist for South Carolina State
Parks. " There are now approximately
150,000 feral pigs statewide, and they
are even starting to impact cultural and
historic resources. " Hampton State
Park, one of South Carolina's most
important state park historic sites, is
ground zero in the efforts to halt the
depredations of wild pigs that are destroying subsurface archeological and
cultural resources by rooting behavior.

The populations of wild pigs, also
called feral swine or wild boar, are
growing explosively throughout the
South, the Southwest, the West and
now the Midwest. The USDA now
estimates that there are more than 5
million wild pigs in the U.S., 3 million in Texas alone, and they are expanding their range dramatically. In
a New York Times article, Ed Reed, a
wildlife biologist for the New York
state Department of Environmental
Conservation, said, " They eat everything. They'll eat the understory
in a forest and dig up plants by rooting the ground for insects and roots.
They compete with wildlife for food.

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They're the most destructive mammal
out there. " Park managers are especially concerned about dealing with
wild pigs in park settings because the
public often doesn't realize the danger
they can be to children and adults.
Managing the Public
If there is one solid lesson to learn
from wildlife-management professionals for dealing with nuisance wildlife, it's that the root of many wildlife
conflicts is human behavior. This
proves true not only in trying to educate the public on why they shouldn't
feed wildlife, but also for gaining understanding and acceptance of management and control actions that need
to be taken to address human-wildlife
conflicts. " It takes a lot to educate the
public about cause and effect, but you
must invest the time and effort, " says
Jennifer Schaeffer, government affairs
director for the Association of Fish
and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA).
A number of park and recreation
agencies are either reluctant to enforce
no-feeding ordinances or intimidated
by pushback from the public, media
or elected officials. Dave Mizejewski,
naturalist for the National Wildlife
Federation, says, " People love wildlife
- it is part of why they love parks.
When there are human-animal conflicts, education is the key. I can't overstate the importance of education,
and that is our job. We can funnel and
channel the passion that people have
into appropriate ways to respond. "
Cathy Breitenbach, director of
lakefront operations with CPD, concurs. " Most people we have dealt
with have no idea there is a connection between feeding the birds and
water quality, " she says. " Once they
learn what the impacts are, they are
very willing to take action to change
their behavior. "
November 2013 - Parks & Recreation

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