JACKSON, MI – Geese defecate faster at Cascade Falls Park than staff can clean it up.

It’s one of the most common issues Jackson County Parks Director Jeff Hovarter said he hears. So, the county is hoping to slim down its goose population at the 443-acre park by seeking a permit to relocate 500 geese.

"(People) love the Cascades. They love the environment, so they keep coming out," Hovarter said. "But their biggest complaint is the mess on the path system that's created. It's something we need to deal with."

At its Tuesday, Feb. 19 meeting, the county’s Board of Commissioners unanimously authorized Hovarter to seek a permit to relocate 500 Canada geese in each of the next three years. Private contractors will take them to natural habitats in the Saginaw area and northeastern lower Michigan, he said.

The issue is, geese are wired to come back once they get their feathers in the summer, said Casey Reitz, permit specialist for the Michigan Department of Natural Resources.

"When they start flying again, some of them will just go right back," Reitz said. "Or they'll come back to the location the next year."

The more effective route is egg and nest destruction, Hovarter and Reitz said. But federal laws force Jackson County to do three years of goose relocation before it can do that, they said.

Other goose control methods approved by the DNR include elimination of feeding, hunting, scare devices, dogs, repellents, barrier fencing and landscape or habitat modifications. Unlike with deer, though, the DNR does not allow goose culls, Reitz said.

It costs $200 for a goose relocation permit and costs $1,200 to move the 500 birds, per county documents. They must be taken at least 50 miles away.

“If we’re lucky, only a small percentage of them will make their way back, and problem solved,” Hovarter said. “Not confident that will be the case. It generally isn’t.”

If geese are still a large problem after three years of relocation, the county very likely will pursue egg and nest destruction, Hovarter said.

The increase in geese isn’t unique to Jackson County, Hovarter said. Michigan’s Canada goose population went from 9,000 in 1970 to 300,000 in 2000, per DNR documents. The current population is between 175,000 and 225,000.

Goose problems are especially prevalent in southeast Michigan, Reitz said, like Oakland, Wayne and Macomb counties.

Jackson County doesn’t do a count, but Hovarter said county estimates show the removal of 500 geese at Cascade Falls Park would account for more than half of them.

The county filed for a goose removal permit about five to six years ago, but didn’t act on it, said Hovarter – who’s worked for Jackson County since 2016.