400 netted in annual goose roundup at lakes, golf courses

Friday, June 5, 1998 | 9:37 a.m.

State animal control officers netted about 400 Canada geese at Reno area lakes and golf courses this week for transfer to wildlife refuges in other parts of the state.

The geese have become an increasing nuisance over the past decade or so partly due to the proliferation of golf courses in the valley in the shadow of the Sierra Nevada, local officials say.

The roundups began 10 years ago after a United Airlines flight hit some geese on takeoff from Reno in 1986.

"Historically they would come here in winter but wouldn't stay here in the summer because there was not enough food and water," said Robert Beach, state director of Nevada Animal Damage Control.

"Now, with all the golf courses ... they see this and it's an oasis. Why keep flying? Once they land here they don't want to go."

Last year, the animal control officers netted about 850 birds and banded them. Fewer than 100 of those were recaptured this year.

The capture has drawn some protest from local residents, who question the need to remove the birds from lakes and ponds.

"I was really upset this morning," Joyce Kroeger, 70, told the Reno Gazette-Journal after she watched some gees being herded off in a cage Thursday morning. She drives by Virginia Lake daily and often stops to feed the geese and ducks.

"I've got a couple of favorite geese," she said.

Beach said it is important to gather hatchlings before they take their first flight.

"Wherever a hatchling first flies is where he'll call home from now on. We want them to call the refuge home rather than a park," he said.