A New York State Highway Department
/ Wildlife Watch Project
Wildlife Watch was contacted
by Al White (photo below) who had seen an entire Canada
goose family killed during the spring of 2000. Seeking help to
prevent that from recurring, he called the Town of New Paltz for
help. They told him that they had no jurisdiction over the State-owned
road. Al then called Wildlife Watch. This spring, Wildlife Watch
and Al held meetings with the NYS Highway Dept. asking them to
allow us to protect Canada geese with 4,000 linear feet of fencing
along Route 299 in New Paltz, NY.
The road was built along a wetland
where Canada geese naturally wanted to have nests and raise their
young. We told them of the hazard to humans when geese cross
the roads, the fact that drivers jam on their brakes or swerve to
avoid
hitting the geese. Besides, it was simply humane to keep them
from getting killed. They agreed for ALL of those reasons. Al’s
excellent carpentry skills led to a demonstration of the prototype
below and the decision-makers agreed to give it a try. We thank
them for sending out surveyors to flag post positions so that they
could be sunk into the ground without disturbing gas lines and
the fiber optic cable. They also provided the posts! We had to
come up with the fencing and the labor.
Al, Student Coalition
for Animal Rights at SUNY New Paltz, Al’s garden club,
and so many others did the hours and hours of work that made this
possible. A special thank you to Al White for his high energy
and sheer strength to see this through. After several weekends,
the fence was up. All too soon we realized that the babies were
darting under the lines, so we added a third line 4 inches from
the ground. Then we saw them "duck" under and jump over
the lines, so we added deer netting leaving a couple of inches
from the ground to let turtles cross.
Al White demonstrating
the prototype to the Highway Dept.
Then we saw the adults lift up over the fence altogether,
but the babies couldn’t follow so the adults flew back to
the other side. Then we saw families in front of the fencing! We
had to end the line by angling it back along the tree line. Over
the weeks, the fence was modified to provide more and more protection.
Although the fence was not 100% fool proof, far fewer geese were
killed this year and no goslings were killed.
Greg Bernardi of SCAR doing a super
job of stringing the wire
Adult geese demonstrating where to stand in relation to the
fence (behind it!).
They were with several babies hidden in the grass.
