Thirteen joined this ASK Salt Spring gathering to welcome Samantha Hammond, CRD Goose Management Coordinator and Penelakut First Nations Ken Thomas of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Natural Resources to discuss our conundrum around the damage these intelligent, majestic, and family-focused Canada Geese are doing to our environment.
After all had a chance to introduce themselves, revealing a surprisingly high level of expertise on this issue among our participants, Ken offered a blessing for our time together of building relationships and seeking collaborative solutions. Samatha shared that she was “excited and delighted” by the growing success of CRD’s Goose Management program and expressed her joy that she could be with us to better understand Salt Spring’s unique issues. She also shared her delight as well as trepidation about her daughter’s imminent departure for Greece.
Ken acknowledged his appreciation of this opportunity to speak about our wildlife, with hope that we would identify actions that we can accomplish together. We learned about his lifelong commitment to our delicate ecosystems, always seeking that balance in nature through his many roles including that of a fisherman, hunter, and salmon enhancement advocate. He noted that traditional harvesting on our islands was getting more difficult as development was making it harder and harder to gain access to the hunting grounds vital to his people. While he chuckled when he admitted that he and his neighbours on Penelukut do buy pork chops and chicken from Country Grocer, he told us a major source of their food is still hunted, collected, and fished. Observing that Canada Geese are becoming more and more plentiful, he shared his concerns about their impact upon our delicate ecosystems both on land and in our waters.
While our abattoir does not accept waterfowl as it has been determined that the work to prepare them outweighs their benefit, we learned from Ken that, while a significant task to prepare, Canada Geese are delicious, especially in the fall when plumpest and before breeding. Not only are they an important source of protein, they also provide valued feathers.
We were sorry that expected guest, Dr. Tara Martin, Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences, University of British Columbia (https://www.naturetrust.bc.ca/our-team/dr-tara-martin) was unexpectedly unable to join us. A source of a wealth of information, we are confident that she will join us again soon.
Samantha gave us an overview of the accomplishments of this relatively new CRD Service, initiated in 2023 (https://www.crd.ca/environment/biodiversity-flora-wildlife/regional-goose-management#canada-goose-management-strategy) in response to many complaints about the rapid increase of the local Canada Geese population. This new service has recently formed a Working Group of 24 experts who meet quarterly. Currently, there are no members of this group from the islands, something that will, hopefully, be rectified as a result of the plentiful contacts Samantha made at this ASK Salt Spring gathering.
Always seeking information about the location of our Canada Geese, we were asked to contact her and her team when we see these geese in our neighbourhoods by emailing goose@crd.bc.ca or calling 250-360-3196. In its first few years, Samantha and her team have conducted two counts during their molting season, revealing an estimated 7,000 geese in the CRD region with 800 birds counted on Salt Spring in 2024 and 700 in 2025. These counts allowed experts to estimate that approximately 1/3 of the Canada Geese in the CRD are on the Gulf Islands. These CRD molting counts and the very helpful and popular volunteer Christmas Counts (https://www.birdscanada.org/bird-science/christmas-bird-count) give us accurate summer and winter Canada goose population numbers.
In addition to counting, this Goose Management Service has the option to utilize a number of other tools to reduce the population of our Canada Geese, including:
- Hazing, chasing geese off properties, was initially considered a useful option until it was recognized that the geese were simply flying from one location to another instead of leaving the area.
- Addling, a humane method that makes the embryo of the egg non-viable, has been identified as a promising action. The CRD uses techniques found within the Humane Society’s Canada Goose Egg Addling Protocol, ensuring ethical and humane treatment. With an adult Canada Goose fertile for up to 20 years, limiting the numbers of new chicks is considered to be an important approach to our goose management issue. Last year over 900 eggs in 190 nests were addled. While promising, it requires knowing where nests are located and getting permission to access these nests. Over 89 properties were surveyed in the CRD but only 11 of these were on the Gulf Islands. The addling buy-in of Salt Spring landowners and farmers has been minimal, a situation Samantha hopes will change with more information and in person opportunities like this ASK Salt Spring gathering. NOTE: While it is hoped that Salt Springers will participate future addling initiatives, it may be
- Permits: Addling and crop protection require a damage/danger permit (https://www.canada.ca/en/environment-climate-change/services/migratory-bird-permits/damage-danger.html), authorizing permit holders to “scare migratory birds, destroy eggs or nests, relocate birds or their nests, or kill birds in instances where the birds, nests, or eggs are causing damage to property or threaten public health and safety.” The CRD has a regional permit that land owners can join to complete this work.
- Harvesting by First Nations is also a promising CRD Goose Management option. We learned from Samantha about a recent harvest made possible through the cooperation of four First Nations groups that resulted in plentiful meat and feathers for all. Samantha is hopeful that a relationship with Salt Spring First Nations will result in a similar successful harvest in the near future. Samantha would be pleased to work with First Nations and landowners to create partnerships, acquire permits or any other requirements, coordinate the harvest, and provide funding as needed.
We learned that Salt Spring has become the perfect habitat for Canada Geese with many large open fields and parks, an amazing climate with food year round, and relatively few predators – despite the propensity of raccoons, feral cats, and red-tailed hawks. Ken told us of stories told by his grandparents when, in the 1920s and 1930s, geese were so plentiful that their nighttime cacophony made sleep difficult. Valued for their down, Ken surmised that their number dropped dramatically in subsequent decades.
This all changed in the 1960s and 70s when adolescent Canada Geese were imported to enhance waterfowl hunting and wildlife viewing. The unintended consequence of this is that, given our perfect coastal BC environment and the fact that these adolescents had no migratory training from parents, they did not migrate. While we still have seasonal migratory geese, the majority of our current population is comprised of descendants of these imported adolescents. We asked, “Can you distinguish between resident and migratory geese?” No. . . .While side-by-side, migratory geese look different, with Dusky geese having less bright white markings and Cackling geese smaller, from a distance our local and migratory birds have a very similar appearance.
Concerns about the harm caused by these non-migratory geese include damage to our vulnerable and so important eel grass (https://engage.gov.bc.ca/bcparksblog/2022/06/08/the-importance-of-british-columbias-eelgrass/); pollution of our riparian areas, damaging important estuaries; significant destruction of crops as geese consume three pounds of food every day; and their most annoying deposits all over our golf courses and playing fields.
Crop devastation by Canada Geese is a hot topic among Saanich Peninsula farmers with their wide open fields and large crops. So far, Salt Spring farmers have not voiced the same need for help, except for one farmer who lost over $100,000 worth of strawberries in one season due to Canada goose damage. Samantha wondered why. . . .It was theorized that our crops are different with more sheep and goats and fewer large scale operations. Could it be that Salt Spring farmers are more reluctant to let strangers on their property to addle eggs? Or, maybe, they simply do not know that help is an option? Samantha has hope that this ASK Salt Spring conversation – and subsequent conversations and collaborations – will help her and her team to better understand the needs and hesitations of local farmers.
Ken has hopes that information about Canada Geese management options can be widely disseminated so that community members can better understand its importance and the need for Salt Springers to participate. He envisions a collaborative fall harvest conducted with respect and resulting in plentiful protein as well as ceremonial feathers.
When asked about other options not yet mentioned, like infertility treatments being piloted in the US, Ken reminded that chemical options hold the high likelihood of devastating unintended consequences, reminding us to be guided by maintaining that delicate natural balance rather than intervening with unnatural chemical treatments.
As our time together was nearly over, we gave everyone a few moments before leaving to exchange contact information. The room buzzed with possibilities, with the retired veterinarian offering help counting, a wildlife rescue expert sharing pictures of rescued mother geese and their chicks, and Ken and his wife, Nadine, circulating, thanking us for a great conversation, one he hopes will be the foundation for collaborative action.
We all left satisfied by an interesting conversation, recognizing that, despite the admiration many of us share for these magnificent fowl, we need to ally to maintain the precious ecological balance they threaten. We enthusiastically thanked Ken for his wisdom, lifetime of commitment to that delicate ecological balance, amazing wildlife experience, and willingness to participate wherever needed. That enthusiastic acknowledgment was echoed for Samantha who genuinely loves her job (and geese!), approaches the challenges with focus and kindness, and clearly wants to better understand Salt Spring needs. (Thank-you, Ken and Samantha!)
Just in case you are interested. . . .This report has been written by Gayle Baker, founder of ASK Salt Spring, currently also a Salt Spring Local Community Commissioner. It has been reviewed by Ken and Samantha.