Parks Team Give Geese a Gander

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Last updated 25th June 2009

BEST raises all kinds of positive actions to solve everyday problems in each area of the Council’s work. But one of the more unusual is the situation faced recently by the Parks and Nature Conversation Team in the Environment and Culture Directorate. Led by Constituency Parks Manager, Simon Cooper, and BEST leader, Liz Elmore, the team of Parks Horticultural Performance Officers (PHPOs) are fortunate to be able to meet fortnightly and include BEST on the agenda, discussing areas of concern for their individual constituency.

An example of the mess being left by the geese

One of the issues being heard regularly at meetings was complaints from the public regarding the mess caused by Birmingham’s 6000 Canadian Geese, which as a result was attracting vermin. With no natural predators, the continued population rise is out of control and the large numbers of geese leave many of our paths filthy and dangerous with their droppings.

As this is a national issue and recognised by the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, culling the geese is out of the question, so the BEST meeting has challenged and motivated the team to resolve what is a recognised national problem. Their challenge is to reduce maintenance costs, see less damage to parks infrastructure such as grass and tarmac paths, control of vermin as a result of the geese and ultimately provide a cleaner, safer environment.

The team are currently trying a couple of alternative methods to get the geese to move on, such as grass management to reduce their food source, discouraging the public from feeding them bread, and looking again at the design of the edges of ponds and their physical structure to make access for the geese more difficult so that they will find another location.

What was initially a light-hearted situation has now brought the team together in a determined, united effort to see the issue resolved. This action is now promoting interaction within the team instead of their usual individual focus on their own constituency.

Team manager, Simon Cooper, said: “Liz has been very good at making sure the team incorporate BEST at each meeting and as a result of this myself and the team of PHPO’s are motivated to use the most cost effective and socially acceptable method to control the Canadian Geese to promote a cleaner, safer environment for families and visitors to Birmingham Parks. The team will be celebrating the success of this action so look out for the end result in Autumn 2009”.