With thoughts of spring, the town of Cornwall board members turned their attention back to the geese problem at their work session on Monday night. During much of the year, the large population of Canadian geese at Ring’s Pond creates a sanitary mess that discourages many local residents from enjoying the town park.
Councilman Randy Clark reminded the board that it had voted last year to purchase a radio-controlled mini-ATV and boat to chase the geese away from Ring’s Pond. The truck would run the geese into the water and the boat would chase them out from the pond until the geese got the message that they could find no rest in the park. The town has not yet implemented the plan.
Councilwoman Mary Beth Greene Krafft also studied the geese issue with a USDA official in 2007 and she told the town board at the time that the geese are here to stay. She also said that she was advised that a border collie or pyro-technics would not be an effective solution to the geese problem.
Town supervisor Kevin Quigley said he favored using the toys but he would need to find someone to operate them every day in order to send a message to the geese that they are not wanted.
Randy Clark also described a more labor-intensive approach that could be applied this spring when the fowl are laying eggs. A crew of volunteers would go out to find the geese’s nests, armed with a bucket, oil, and an umbrella. The umbrella would be used to keep the geese at bay while another person oils the eggs, preventing them from hatching.
No one on the board seemed inclined to hunt down the geese nests and councilman Clark again pushed for the toys. “Either we go back to the toys or we put up with it,” he said.
