John Nichelson remembers walking near the Scioto River Downtown one day last year and counting 88 geese in the water.

On Tuesday, there wasn't one in the river, or on the grassy slopes leading to the water, or on the steps from COSI. That's because in late June, a company hired by the Columbus Department of Recreation and Parks rounded up 250 geese that were, in the words of Recreation and Parks spokesman Brian Hoyt, "humanely euthanized," using carbon dioxide.

"Pretty normal practice," Hoyt said.

Nichelson, who was leaning on a railing on an overlook, has noticed the lack of geese at the Scioto Greenways park.

And he wasn't upset that the city went to the extent it did.

"It beats sirens," he said. "It beats dogs."

The city tried dogs and noise last year to rid the Scioto Mile of geese. Recreation and Parks hired SCRAM!, a service affiliated with the Ohio Wildlife Center, for $14,975 to deal with the problem.

The service went to the park twice a day to remove dead or injured geese and brought dogs to chase the others away. The service also shook eggs in nests to limit the population.

But that didn't work as well as parks officials wanted. The geese can be aggressive and their droppings numerous.

"Our maintenance folks were down there all the time," Hoyt said, cleaning up the mess.

So the department decided to hire the Wildlife Control Company to get rid of the geese.

The bill to the city to kill 250 geese: $10,750, or about $43 per goose.

Hoyt said that about 50 geese were left, scattered along a stretch from North Bank Park on the northern end to Miranova on the southern end.

More geese, presumably, will return. It's a river, after all.

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But Hoyt said he doesn't know if the department will hire a company to cull the geese on a regular basis. The city also will try to reduce habitat for them and ask visitors not to feed them, Hoyt said.

"Health and safety is the bottom line," he said.

According to the Humane Society of the United States, federal law protects Canada geese, but that only means people cannot harm them without U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service permission. The agency often gives permission to kill the geese in urban and suburban areas. Hoyt said the city obtained a state permit to do so after getting a recommendation from the Ohio Department of Natural Resources' Division of Wildlife, which acts as an agent of the federal government.

Dick Shearer, president of the Wildlife Control Company, said the geese were "humanely euthanized." Hoyt said the procedure is called "carbon dioxide-induced narcosis," when carbon dioxide is introduced to put the birds to sleep off site. Hoyt said this is also used on research animals.

Michael McKinley, walking near the river Downtown on Tuesday, said he wondered why the city didn't release the geese somewhere else. "I'm an avid hunter," said McKinley, 32, of Delaware, who said he hunts deer and waterfowl. "I'd return them and relocate them."

Another lunchtime walker, Kelly Jeter, 39, of Williamsport in Pickaway County, said she wondered where the geese had gone. A supervisor with the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency, she said she thinks the city should come up with another solution rather them killing them.

Nichelson said he hasn't seen many geese since June.

"Now, we have seagulls," he said.