Anacostia's Geese May Face Death Sentence

Park Service Seeks Ideas For Holding Back Fowl

The Anacostia River is plagued by an overpopulation of Canada geese that eat marsh grasses and pollute the water with their waste, and the National Park Service could curb the problem by killing some of the birds, environmental groups testified at a recent public hearing.

The Park Service, which runs Anacostia Park, is trying to figure out how to deal with the roughly 600 geese that live on and around the famously polluted river. Last week, in two hearings at the U.S. Park Police headquarters building in Southeast Washington, the Park Service sought public suggestions on options that include fencing the birds out, smothering their eggs or killing them outright.

The reaction from some groups was strong: The geese need to go.

"The geese are preventing this diverse river habitat from existing," said Brian Van Wye, an environmental activist whose title is Anacostia riverkeeper. "We just need to get back to a state of balance."

Van Wye, like several others at the meeting July 18, said that the problem was dire enough for the Park Service to consider killing some of the geese.

"If it has to include lethal means, that's the direction we need to go," he said. "It's nice to think about never harming another creature. . . . Preserving that at the [cost of the] long-term success of the river, I think, is a mistake."

The river's problematic waterfowl are similar to the Canada geese that fly in V formations every fall and spring, but they don't migrate. The so-called resident geese are thought to have descended from birds that were stocked or released on the East Coast decades ago for hunting, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

The geese have found that this area, and especially the protected area with short-clipped grass along the Anacostia, provides a great habitat year-round.

"It's like the relative who comes to stay at Christmas and just doesn't go home," said Jim Collier, a member of the Anacostia Watershed Citizens Advisory Committee.

Now, Park Service officials say, the geese are a major environmental problem. When anyone plants marsh grasses on the river, trying to re-create the wetlands that once filtered the water and provided a home for wildlife, the geese gobble up the plants. And the birds' waste plays a major role in the Anacostia's problems with fecal bacteria.

The Park Service is months away from making a decision on the fate of the geese: Officials at the meeting said they planned to release preliminary plans for public comment early next year and make a final determination by the spring.

Park Service officials said they will continue to accept public input about the geese until Aug. 10. Information about sending comments is at http:// http://parkplanning.nps.gov/anac.