St. Clair Township is trying to stop a Canadian icon from eating its way through a farmer’s field.
Mayor Steve Arnold says council recent signed a land lease contract with Glen Dawson to farmland near the lagoons in Brigden. He’d been using the land for some time and says the Canadian Geese who use the lagoon like to pick the soybeans right off his plants.
Dawson says the geese can eat up to two or three acres of beans and the profit that goes with that.
Arnold says it is natural for the geese to land at the lagoon. It’s open water and it is part of the former Moore Wildlife Reserve – protected from hunters.
But Dawson wanted some compensation for his losses on the land. Instead of waving the land use fee, council will try to deal with the problem directly.
Arnold says at the suggestion of Councilor Daryl Randall a local field naturalist group was contacted to see if there was a natural solution to the problem.
“They’re going to plant tall grasses at the edge of the lagoon property,” says Arnold. “It will be a buffer strip between the lagoon and the nesting area so the goslings won’t go through. If the goslings don’t go through, the adults don’t either.”
“It’s been tried in other places and has been very effective,” adds Arnold.