Geese-droppings making Dartmouth, N.S., park unpleasant to visit

Beachgoers at Penhorn Lake Park in Dartmouth, N.S., have to watch out the growing crowds of geese.

On a sunny day, Penhorn Lake Park is a busy place.

People using the park lately have to be careful where they step these days, and kids need to be wary of where they play.

“The amount of goose poop is just ridiculous, absolutely crazy,” says Robin Isaac.

She has been swimming here for 60 years, first growing up in the neighbourhood then visiting regularly after moving.

Over the last four to five years, she’s seen the goose population steadily increase and it’s making the beach an unpleasant place to visit.

According to Isaac, over the last two days, she’s cleaned up 8 buckets of droppings.

“If you go look around, just behind me here there’s so much poop you can’t sit, you can’t enjoy it. On the sand area, everywhere you go.”

After hearing complaints, the city is going to try to do something about the geese and what they leave behind.

“We have someone that has trained border collies that’s trained to shoo away the geese. He does a lot of work with a lot of the golf courses around,” Deputy Mayor Tony Mancini says. “We don’t want to cause harm to the geese, we just want to shoo them off.”

Mancini stresses the program is a humane one and the dogs are only going to be brought in towards the end of July after the young geese are able to fly.

“They’re Canada Geese, they’re beautiful looking animals, but they do their business all over the place and if you look at the beach, there’s lots of droppings all over the place and it makes the water unsafe and it’s an unsafe for families,” he continued.

The city says once the geese have moved on the park will get a thorough cleaning. The city will also be bringing in new sand for the beach.

“I am so grateful. I wish it could start now,” Isaac says.

The city has tried other methods in the past that didn’t work like lights and sounds to encourage the geese to move along.

The dogs have been successful at clearing golf courses, the hope is that it will work here too.

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