Silent Fall -- A New York City Future Without Geese and Other Birds

The NYC resident geese of summer.  A species surely on the road to extinction in our fair city (along with other birds).

In the aftermath of Cago's untimely death, I walk around a goose-empty Central Park now and try to envision the future.

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There is absolutely no doubt that the goal of the Dept of Parks and Recreation, (as well as numerous other city, state and federal agencies) is that New York City will be entirely devoid of its resident Canada goose population within a decade (or likely, sooner).

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Certainly, that is the goal of Central Park Conservancy, though they don't admit in so many words.   Nor is the Conservancy entirely responsible for the negative attitude towards geese as it trickles down from other, more powerful agencies, as well as numerous politicians.

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But, let it be noted that destructive attitudes towards wildlife and birds is not limited to Canada geese or Central Park.

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Currently, there is plan underway to "remove" (i.e. kill) mute swans at Gateway National Park under the same ruse of the "Bird Hazard Reduction Program." 

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USDA Wildlife Services is requesting public comment to the plan, but rest assured it will go through regardless of what a hand full of people think (just as it did for Canada geese, more than a thousand of whom have been rounded up and slaughtered over the past two years at Jamaica Bay Wildlife "Refuge").

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http://www.scribd.com/doc/174721071/Mute-Swans-USDA-APHIS-Supplement-to-the-Environmental-Impact-Statement-SEIS-Bird-Hazard-Reduction-Program-John-F-Kennedy-International-Airpo

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Never mind the fact that swans are almost never involved in airline collisions.

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If it wasn't the airline excuse, other rationalization would be conjured up for the swans' ultimate demise -- just as they are for Canada geese.  For one matter, mute swans are typically labeled an "invasive species" by federal agencies, unlike the more desirable and less plentiful tundra swans.

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So, the swans have to "go," along with the geese, cormorants and a variety of other birds labeled "nuisance or threat" by so-called experts.

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For the most part, (unless actually following these matters) the public is kept in the dark about local and national parks' plans to "remove" wildlife -- usually with the aid of USDA Wildlife (killing) Services.  Media doesn't report on the shooting or slaughtering plans. And indeed, the only "concern" USDA seems to have in the above document is that members of the public might happen to see (and get upset over) swans being shot on a so-called "refuge."  Presumably, this is why most goose roundups and other wildlife slaughters are conducted in the wee hours of the morning or when public parks are closed -- so that members of the public don't happen to stumble upon and witness bird massacres.

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With all this in mind, it doesn't require sense of paranoia to imagine that a few years from now, there will be no resident geese in NYC parks and few, if any other birds over 4 lbs that are considered "threat" to the millions of planes flying in and out of the city. -- Even if those birds rarely, if ever venture out of a local park (unless harassed out).  

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Currently, the resident population of geese flying into Central Park during the spring to return to nesting and molting sites is about 40.

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But, when these geese pass on, there will be none to replace them as all the eggs of nesting geese in Central Park are now oiled (i.e. prevented from hatching). And harassment is conducted on Canada geese in Central Park starting from the early spring and continuing through most of the year.  Should harassment now be conducted during the winter, that will result in even migratory geese not being allowed to temporarily winter in Central Park.

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Little by little, geese and other stately birds are vanishing from our parks and few people seem to notice or care.

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It is only a matter of time before the mallards are similarly targeted just as the geese have been. (After all, ducks fly too and Wildlife Services needs to earn pay checks now that they are entrenched in New York City and most geese have been wiped and/or harassed out.)

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Small wonder under all these considerations that the main job of Urban Park Rangers these days is to provide guided tours and "education."  Why would rangers need kayaks or other rescue equipment when there is little wildlife left? They can always point to statues or concert venues on their guide tours.

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As I do not run, bike or frequent concerts, movies and plays, there will be little reason for me to visit Central Park a few years from now.

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Even now, it is fast becoming a place of sad memories and the ghosts of painful loss and eerie silence.

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And yet, I ironically still see the vans of "Geese Police" regularly patrolling in a place there are no geese left to harass and chase out.

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Of all the things that so profoundly disturb about the recent death of Cago is the realization now that the few geese she befriended and attempted to align with over the past few months were likely harassed out of Harlem Meer by Geese Police.

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I particularly recall Cago as gentle "stranger on the shore" to welcome the injured Toluse when he flew into Harlem Meer in late July, stumbling on a sprained leg. Over the following week, Cago nurtured, mentored and protected the slowly recovering gander.  Indeed, I thought the two might become a bonded, happy pair.

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But, then suddenly,Toluse was gone. And though I thought at the time, Toluse sought to return to his original mate or flock, that was about the time goose harassment resumed in Central Park.  Cago could not go with Toluse as she was still molting in late July and could not fly.

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There was, in short, no chance for Cago to again bond with her own kind -- a kind of death knell for Canada geese as such could ultimately lead to nothing other than repeated despair and sense of loss and hopelessness.

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And though I now personally mourn the loss of Cago, I know there are those who likely celebrate it.

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The words of a Dana Discovery Center employee reverberate in my head now as in answer to the question of why the Harlem Meer geese were being harassed a couple of years ago, the curt and cold reply was, "We don't want the geese here."

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The question is, what DO they want at Harlem Meer?

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Just fishermen with polls?

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I fear for the four domestic ducks still surviving at Harlem Meer, as well as the mallards who come and go according to the time of year -- or harassment.

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And I dread the day that I go to Central Park only to see tens of thousands of runners, cyclists, concert goers, tourists and fishermen.

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But, in many ways, that day, like a song, is already here. ("Send in the clowns.  Don't bother, they're here.") 

One cannot help but wonder if that was the original intent for Central and all other NYC parks and so-called, "Wildlife Refuges?" --  Entertainment venues as opposed to peaceful places of nature, wildlife and human retreat?  

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It may be silent fall now in a park devoid of the glorious calls and antics of Canada geese.

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But, it is surely not in the more rural parts of our state where the sounds of powerful rifles pierce the blue skies and ultimately bring down and forever silence those geese who no longer find welcome in any part of the country.  

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Rest in peace, Cago.

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May you find in the next world what was so ruthlessly and brutally taken from and denied you in this one. -- PCA

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