Janet L. Bucknall, State Director and Wildlife Biologist, USDA APHIS Wildlife
Services, Pittstown, New Jersey
Abstract:
The management of damage problems associated with Canada geese is increasingly important to citizens, community and governmental decision-makers, and State and Federal wildlife management agencies in the northeastern United States. Although migratory Canada goose populations can be associated with damage, the bulk of these problems involve resident Canada goose populations during the spring and summer. The Atlantic Flyway resident Canada goose population is estimated at 980,400 birds (Spring, 2004), a 150% increase since 1989. The USDA APHIS Wildlife Services program is the government agency whose mission is focused on resolution of damage situations involving geese. WS works cooperatively with other Federal and State agencies, landowners, and local governments to recommend and implement an integrated wildlife damage management (IWDM) approach to address requests for assistance in handling goose-related problems. Typical damage scenarios include threats to human safety (aggressive geese attacking people, geese in roadways, feces accumulations creating slipping hazards), property damage (overgrazing turf), negative impacts on other natural resources (overgrazing vegetation on restored wetlands and in rare wetland habitat types), crop depredation (soybeans, corn, alfalfa), and quality of life impacts (feces and aggressive geese in residential, recreational, and public areas). The IWDM approach espoused by WS includes a wide variety of effective, environmentally-responsible, safe and legal techniques, including tolerance and understanding, no feeding policies, habitat management, behavior modification, control of goose reproduction activities, and local goose population management. Federal and State permit processes, community-based decision-making, and social considerations are essential aspects of goose damage management program development, implementation, and monitoring. New Jersey’s Canada goose damage management experience will be profiled in this presentation.
Biography:
Janet Bucknall is a Certified Wildlife Biologist, and has been the State Director of the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services program in New Jersey since 1991. Prior to then, she worked with Wildlife Services in New York and Wisconsin. In New Jersey, her program’s work is focused on assisting people in resolving bird damage management challenges, especially those related to Canada geese, bird hazards at airports, and blackbirds and starlings in agricultural environments. Other aspects of the WS program in New Jersey, of increasing importance, are predation management to protect rare, threatened and endangered shorebirds, and monitoring effectiveness of rabies management programs. Janet co-teaches a course on wildlife damage management at Rutgers University, is a certified pesticide applicator, and has been instrumental in re-vitalizing the NJ Chapter of the Wildlife Society in the Garden State.