While we all love goslings running around the parks, the number one way to keep the goose population from expanding is to oil goose eggs to prevent them from hatching.
CGPC reviewed Denver’s egg oiling stats: Denver Parks did not appear to have oiled goose eggs for 9 out of the past 17 years. We calculated how many eggs should be oiled each year, and it was more than 10,000 eggs. DPR’s staff + Wildlife Services would likely not be able to increase their egg oiling to four times the volume they’re currently doing. So we volunteered to help.
We announced this to the city council & the Park & Rec Citizen Advisory Board. Denver Parks then reached out and said they would allow us to provide 25 volunteers. We recruited 25 volunteers from Canada Geese Protection Colorado, Audubon Denver & Bird Conservancy of Colorado for the egg oiling training.
- NINE volunteers were trained at a Denver Parks training session on March 7, 2020.
- SIXTEEN more volunteers were scheduled to be trained on March 14, 2020.
Then the pandemic and the lockdowns hit. As a result, the second training, and the whole volunteer program, was cancelled. We understand that some folks in the group do not want eggs oiled. But, we offered to help for the following reason:
Every egg that is oiled is a goose that will not be rounded up and sent to a slaughterhouse.
We have filed CORA and FOIA info requests to ascertain if Denver/USDA Wildlife Services have obtained a Depredation Permit for 2020. Denver Parks has declined to answer this question and has referred us to the USDA. We are continuing to work to determine if Denver has the permit to kill geese in 2020 or not.
We will keep you posted.
CANADA GEESE PROTECTION COLORADO 