2022 Memorial Day Issue

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April Simnor keeps an eye on a pair of Canada geese as she checks the eggs from their nest. Simnor shares the water with a male Canada goose. Homeowners at Lakeshore Village install fencing along the boat launch. Jamie Brunn and Tena Bos install fencing at Lakeshore Village. Solving This Issue Can Be A Wild Goose Chase They are harassed, their nesting areas targeted, their eggs addled. Humans plant taller grass near favored lakes and streams to deter them or add chemicals or rough surfaces around water bodies that make walking to lakes and streams uncomfortable. Feeding them on public property is illegal in the four Lake Hopatcong towns—Mount Arlington banned feeding them on public and private property. But Canada geese never seem to go away. Not for lack of trying. This year the Lake Hopatcong Commission will jump into the fray to make the watershed uncomfortable for the Canada goose, a large (average weight 12 to 14 pounds, with a 4- to 6-foot wingspan), protective, aggressive and omnipresent bird. The birds are both an important member of the Lake Hopatcong wildlife community and an identified nuisance whose feces foul parks, playing fields and beaches and add to the collective pollution that plagues the lake. Wildlife professionals have identified two groups of Canada geese in New Jersey: Migratory birds that move between breeding grounds in Canada and overwintering areas in the United States, and a resident group that has grown since the 1930s, when they were first released. A 2012 Rutgers University Cooperative Service study noted there were 80,000 native 6 Story by MICHAEL DAIGLE Photos by KAREN FUCITO LAKE HOPATCONG NEWS Memorial Day 2022 Jersey geese. In 2008, there were an estimated 3.6 million resident geese in the United States. The study said “The overabundance of resident Canada geese in the eastern U.S. has significant negative impacts on both ecosystem and human health. Intolerable levels of negative human-goose interactions, including agricultural damage, habitat degradation, aircraft strikes and environmental contamination, make managing resident goose populations a necessity. A lack of natural predators and high-quality food resources have greatly increased survival.” And, oh, both groups of geese—the migratory and the resident—are federally protected. Karen Porfido of Mount Arlington, an alternate on the Lake Hopatcong Commission, is heading up that group’s new effort to reduce goose damage to the lake watershed. She said the impact of goose feces on Lake Hopatcong is profound. “Four adult geese can produce as much phosphorus as one septic system,” she said. “One goose produces one half pound of phosphorus a year, which has the potential to generate 550 pounds of wet algae.” For comparison, reports filed by Princeton Hydro LLC, the lake’s water quality consultant, say removal (through weed harvesting) of one pound of phosphorus from the lake can result in the removal of 1,100 pounds of wet plant material. Porfido said the commission this year will begin with an education program designed to show the impact of the geese on the lake and to outline preferred discouragement methods. One goal is to secure permission from property owners to allow volunteers next spring during breeding season to enter properties and addle eggs. The goose battle is not new nor confined to Lake Hopatcong. At Lake Shawnee, Jefferson Mayor Eric Wilsusen, who is also president of the private Lake Shawnee Club, said, “We have tried everything.” That included egg addling, pyrotechnics and other noisemakers to startle the geese, planting tall grass near the shore and chemical treatments. “It’s important to addle the eggs,” he said. “At times we had to close beaches because of the mess.” The 83-acre lake is home to 2,559 residents whose activities rely on access to clean beaches and a clean lake. The lake averages 12 to 15 pairs of geese, Wilsusen said, but has been home to as many as 25 pairs. “We have to find a balance that protects the geese and keeps the lake clean,” he said. There’s also this: “We are the headwaters for Lake Hopatcong,” Wilsusen said. “What we do in Shawnee has an impact in Lake Hopatcong.” The Lake Mohawk Country Club, a private lake community in Sparta and Byram, extends its mitigation efforts to all waterfowl, said engineer Sabina Watson. The program includes the usual efforts: Egg addling, no feeding of birds and other wildlife, habitat disruption and eradication. The community of 9,916 people on the 800- acre lake shares the space with about 30 pairs of geese, Watson said. The aggressive mitigation has meant “we have not seen an increase in the population of geese,” Watson said. Netcong partners with the Lake Musconetcong Regional Planning Board and
neighboring Stanhope Borough to tackle the goose issue on the lake, said Administrator Ralph Blakeslee. “It’s a health issue,” he said. Off-lake efforts include dog cut-outs, taller grass and other efforts to discourage the geese from landing on the grass lakeside and in parks where the waste can be washed into the lake and the Musconetcong River. “It makes a difference,” he said. “It’s a public service to keep the parks and lake cleaner.” Meanwhile, the Longwood Lake Cabin Owners Association in Jefferson makes “no community-wide interventions” to address geese, said Eva-Lee Baird, the group’s secretary. “Longwood Lake, formed by a dam on a small river, has a fairly high flow rate, [which] keeps a number of potential problems from becoming serious and avoids the need for community-wide interventions,” she said. Grace Rhinesmith, Jefferson Township’s director of parks and recreation, has been scheming against Canada geese for 20 years when the birds invaded the Lakeside Recreation Complex, which borders Route 15 South and is surrounded by a section of Lake Hopatcong known locally as the canals. The fields were covered with geese feces, she said. “It was a health issue for the players and was washing into the lake.” The township tried all the recommended mitigation efforts: Habitat disturbance, fencing, tall grass and egg addling. Early on, Rhinesmith, along with her then boss, Roland Sparling, supervisor of parks, would search for nests along the shoreline surrounding the park, addling as many eggs as they could find. It was a daunting task, she said. Soon after, the township enlisted the help of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, settling on a course of action that has shown significant improvement, said Rhinesmith. “There is a huge difference. We used to see 20, 30, 40 geese a day [on the fields]. It’s gotten a lot better over the past decade.” The number of nests and eggs addled varied over the years, said Rhinesmith. In 2003, the first year, 101 eggs were addled. In 2005, 30 nests were found and 151 eggs were addled. In 2011, there were 11 nests and 30 eggs addled. In 2021, there were 18 nests and 87 eggs addled. April Simnor, a USDA wildlife biologist, has been tasked with addling in Jefferson for the last 16 years, spending countless hours in her kayak searching for nests hidden among the vegetation along the shorelines in the canals and around Liffy Island and other lakeside township-owned property. On a recent April morning, Simnor paddled her way a short distance in the canals, checking the first half dozen known nests along the route and encountering three pairs of protective parents along the way. The success of addling, in which Simnor terminates the growth of the embryo by oiling the egg and returning it to the nest, is to trick sitting adults into believing the egg is still developing. On this day, three nests were “active” with sitters while three others were abandoned, flooded out due mostly to the high-water level in the lake at the time. At its April meeting, Simnor, who comes with an impressive resume, advised the lake commission on its goose mitigation program. (In 2019, she was the lead biologist on a program to disperse tens of thousands of crows from the state government complex. That same year she led an effort to reduce the impact of Canada geese on the properties operated by the Passaic Valley Water Commission.) In her presentation, Simnor focused on employing many of the current techniques, advised the commission on current laws and highlighted the need to secure permission from property owners for access to their properties to seek nests. “Lake Hopatcong is a challenge because of its complex watershed and the size of the lake,” Hearth and Home Fireplace And Chimney Specialists PELLET, WOOD & GAS STOVES SALES, SERVICE & INSTALLATION •Custom Mantels •Gas Logs •Glass Doors •Fireplace Refacing •Chimney Cleaning & Repair Accessories Gifts Charcoal Grills 1215 Route 46 West Ledgewood, NJ HOURS Monday-Friday 10-6 Saturday 9-4 Check our Facebook page for seasonal or summer hours @ Hearth & Home of New Jersey 973-252-0190 www.hearthandhome.net Simnor said. The effort to move geese is complicated, she said. Tall grasses along a lake can offer a hidden nesting area, for example, she said, but also raise concern among the geese because they might not be able to see a predator. That might make the geese seek another nesting area, she said. Yet that is also tricky, Simnor said. Geese might respond to persistent efforts to disrupt their habitat, she said, but they are genetically attached to their birthplace, like many animals. So, while humans want the geese to find another home, if they were born there, Lake Hopatcong is their home. Simnor said the last data from USDA showed there are 68,215 Canada geese in New Jersey. That would be a drop of about 12,000 from 2008, as measured by Rutgers. “Making a consistent effort is the key” to reducing the goose population, said Jefferson’s Rhinesmith. “These birds are harmless in one sense—they are not predators, but at the same time they are dangerous because of what they leave behind.” For Karen Porfido, the effort is about looking ahead. “I want the lake to be clean for my children and grandchildren,” she said. Family owned & operated for over 35 Years! 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2022 Memorial Day Issue

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