Geese wandering on Kin Beach.

(BEN BULMER / iNFOnews.ca)

Okanagan Valley communities are conducting a goose management program for the 16th year to prevent goose populations from growing out of control.

The Okanagan Valley Goose Management Program is conducting an egg-addling program this year from Vernon to Osoyoos.

“Egg addling is an important population management tool. It is the least invasive form of population control, supported by many animal welfare groups such as the U.S. Humane Society, which provides a protocol to ensure the addling process is humane and effective,” according to the City of Vernon’s press release.

Eggs are shaken or coated with a non-toxic corn oil within 14 days of incubation to make them non-viable. Once addled, eggs are returned to the nest and the geese will continue to incubate them until they realize they haven’t hatched, according to the city.

By then, it is generally too late in the year to produce more eggs. Adults are not harmed and will continue with their regular annual life cycle, according to the city.

The program prevents the goose population, roughly 2,500 birds, from growing out of control.

In the last 15 years, more than 20,000 eggs have been addled which equates to an estimated 11,000 - 15,000 geese directly not entering the population. This does not include the thousands of offspring that those geese could have produced over the years, according to the city.

Kate Hagmeier, program coordinator, said in the press release that these management actions target geese that would not naturally be nesting in the region.

These are generations of offspring of several different subspecies of Canada Geese that were introduced in the 1960s and 1970s. Canada geese from elsewhere in Canada and the U.S. were moved here as part of managed introduction programs.

The public is asked to report lone geese, pairs of geese, or nest locations on private or public land through email or by calling 1-877-943-3209 and to keep away from goose nests and not touch the eggs. A federal permit is required to allow crews to addle goose eggs.

If a nest is on private land, a permission form to access the nest is available on the program website. Crews will be addling eggs until mid-May.

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