Park visitors warned not to feed the animals-4/4/97-Laurie Petrie, Post staff reporter
Flying overhead in V-formation, a flock of Canada geese is a memorable sight. But get several gaggles crowded around a park pond gobbling bread crumbs tossed by visitors and they begin to seem less like wildlife and more like farm animals.
It's gotten to be a big problem and not just with geese, but also mallard ducks, deer, racoons, skunks and other animals who are being killed by human kindness.
In reaction, the Hamilton County Park District has adopted a new policy urging visitors not to feed the wildlife. Signs went up in January and park rangers are distributing information flyers.
''One of the qualities we appreciate in the animals is their wildness and when you feed them and create beggars out of them, you are defeating the purpose,'' said Rick Jasper, assistant wildlife management supervisor for the Ohio Division of Wildlife.
Over the past several years, park district officials have become alarmed at their burgeoning population of waterfowl and other animals. Though they mean well, visitors who feed the animals are helping create an overcrowding problem, said park district spokeswoman Joy Landry.
Animals seek out the easy food supply, hang around longer than is good for them and spread the news, creating a population boom. That makes for an unhealthy situation. Animals lose their natural wariness of humans, eat junk food and then pollute the ponds with excess droppings. Overcrowding spreads disease and makes for a stinky mess around the park harbor areas.
Every year, the park district conducts a winter bird count. In 1972, counters sighted nine Canada geese in 16 parks. Last year, they spotted 1,217 geese. The Mallard duck population tends to go up and down, but in 1972, there were about 100 counted and last year, there were 700.
The Ohio Division of Wildlife captured 600 Canada geese from Hamilton County parks over several years and moved them to eastern Ohio. That proved to be a futile exercise, however, because the geese returned within a few days, Ms. Landry said.
Five Rivers Metro Parks in Dayton has had a no-feeding policy for nearly 10 years, according to director Marvin Olinsky.
''We're in the business of wildlife conservation and protection and by providing artificial means of feeding birds and other animals we are doing more damage than by letting them fend for themselves,'' he said.
Feeding the animals upsets the balance of nature, but ending it won't solve a problem which is being created by a larger issue of habitat destruction, park and wildlife officials said.
''More and more animals are becoming friendly because of the encroachment of homo sapiens on the once-natural community,'' Olinsky said.
With woods and wetlands vanishing, backyard gardens, golf courses and even the ponds in office parks start to look pretty good to deer, geese and racoons. And now that nesting season has begun, the division of wildlife has been receiving calls every day about people attacked by geese defending their territory, Jasper said.
''We've created goose heaven with all the water retention basins, office park ponds and fertilized grass,'' he said. ''Their population has exploded in the Midwest in the last three years. The way geese have adapted, I don't see the problem disappearing.''
The best solution has been to preserve or restore habitats such as the project in Miami Whitewater Forest to return farm property to its original wetlands, said Hamilton County Park District program supervisor Cheryl Johnson.
She said the no-feeding policy is intended to educate people, not to penalize them if they're caught throwing bread to the ducks.
''People have responded well,'' she said. ''Park supporters care about wildlife and the environment and they want to do what's best for the animals.''
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