During one of his presentations Joe Rush (our lake manager/biologist) indicated one of our problems with nutrient loading of our lake is the geese. As I looked out at the lake this morning I see what has to be thousands of geese. They are not going to leave until our lake freezes solid, and that may not happen for a while the way our temperatures are holding. Joe is right. Look at the information below. It is as if we are dumping many bags of fertilizer in our lake each day these geese remain and with our lake so far below pool it is not even skimming as it should. It is basically a closed pool of water. I am getting more worried about next summer as the weeks pass with this warm weather. It could get ugly if things don't change. Ken
But Do Geese Really Harm Your Lake?
Some researchers think they do and some think they don't. In any case the geese probably are certainly contributing nutrients that help fuel excessive growths of algae and macrophytes.
The scoop on goose poop:
- The average Canada goose dropping has a dry weight of 1.2 g (~ 0.04 ounces)
- Average droppings per day ~ 82 g/day (dry weight), that's 2.6 ounces/day (about 1/3 cup)
- Each dropping contains 76 % carbon, 4.4 % nitrogen, and 1.3 % phosphorus
- Geese can defecate as many as 92 times a day (numbers reported range from 28-92)
- What goes into a goose generally comes from within the watershed and what comes out also stays in the watershed (at least for resident Giant Canada geese).
