Denver’s resident Canada geese could be saved from a summer culling this year thanks to several control strategies and the potential impact of the ongoing avian flu outbreak.
In 2019 and 2020, over 2,000 geese were killed in a controversial effort to control the population of year-round residents of Denver’s parks, and after two years of not needing the culling, this year is “looking pretty good” for the geese as well.
Denver Parks and Recreation, in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services, used all the nonlethal control strategies under their management program in 2022, including hazing, egg oiling and coyote decoys, said Denver Parks and Recreation’s Wildlife Program Administrator Vicki Vargas-Madrid, and saw only a small increase in the resident geese population over the past year.
