Bread is like junk food to geese, who are herbivores and should feed almost exclusively on plants

Feeding the birds may be a pleasant pastime on a warm summer day, but when it comes to nuisance species such as Canada geese, heed this advice: Please do not feed the geese.

It's a message about which a NewmarketToday reader urged this publication to help raise awareness after watching vistors to Upper Canada Mall "throw bread" at the many geese who gather in the stormwater pond there on Yonge Street.

In recent years, the Town of Newmarket, in partnership with the Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority, has planted shrubs and plants along the edge of the dam at Fairy Lake to deter geese from gathering there.

This has resulted in decreased numbers of geese that the environmental group says have caused problems for people and pets that like to stroll along the trail by the water.

Messy goose droppings, aggressive behaviour toward people with food, and foul smells are all cited as reasons to not encourage the large birds from getting comfortable in Newmarket’s waterways and ponds.

But perhaps more importantly, feeding the geese bread, crackers, popcorn and other high-carb foods such as French fries provides them little nutrition.

Geese are herbivores, and feed almost exclusively on plants, according to Environment Canada’s Canadian Wildlife Service.

“In natural areas, their foods include grass and other tender plants, seeds and berries, as well as aquatic vegetation,” the service states in a handbook on geese management and population control. “In agricultural areas, they eat grasses, cultivated grains and some vegetable crops.”

“...Because taller, older grasses are coarser and offer less nutritional value, geese prefer new grass shoots, which explains their preference for mowed lawns.”

Prevention is the best method to geese control and that includes no feeding.

“Supplemental feeding encourages a high concentration of geese year-round. Geese will not abandon a site as long as people feed them,” the handbook states. “However, when the diets of geese are not supplemented with handouts and they have to depend on the more limited natural food supply, some or all will move elsewhere.”

Here are some reasons why you should not feed geese, courtesy of the geese management firm Geese Relief: