Michigan to kill Canada geese instead of relocating them

Michigan is abandoning its program of relocating Canada geese and instead will start killing the birds, state officials said Thursday.

Starting next year, permit holders will be allowed to capture and euthanize geese, although not as part of a mass roundup, and the fee for permits will be knocked down from $200 to $100, the state Department of Natural Resources explained in a document detailing its policy changes.

In previous years, permit holders rounded up the geese for relocation. Relocation is no longer considered effective by state officials due to a lack of release sites, concerns about bird flu and other factors, DNR said.

About 281,000 of the birds are in Michigan, and the agency aims for a population of 175,000 to 225,000. The agency has fielded increasing complaints about the birds, and bird flu has caused the cancellation of the relocation program in recent years.

Canada geese are drawn to both urban and suburban landscapes, and their droppings and molting period that leaves them flightless causes conflicts with people. While Michigan allows hunting, the birds flock to populated areas such as lawns along waterfronts or parks and golf courses, meaning that hunting would not be safe.

“They’re extremely adaptable animals,” DNR Waterfowl and Wetland Specialist Barbara Avers told nonprofit news service Bridge Michigan, and people have made “the perfect habitat for them.”

For a site to request a geese roundup, other methods must be tried first, including the destruction of nests and eggs, which leads the geese to fly elsewhere to shed their feathers and rear young, and non-violent harassment techniques, DNR officials wrote in an August memo proposing the changes.

Nest and egg destruction permits will be issued statewide instead of being limited to certain parts of the state. 

Roundups will be limited to situations when there are human health concerns or when other criteria are met, including a goose population above a certain threshold, DNR officials wrote in the memo.


Officials say they don’t foresee the new policy causing a mass culling of geese.

“We are anticipating some sites (that previously relocated geese) will actually not be interested in doing the roundup, because they do not want birds killed,” Ms. Avers told Bridge Michigan.