[env-trinity] From Too Few To Too Two Many

[Patrick Truman]

      FROM TOO FEW TO TOO MANY
      Aleutian goose's rebound a problem for agriculture
      Glen Martin, Chronicle Environment Writer

      Sunday, March 11, 2007

          More... 
      (03-11) 04:00 PDT Humboldt County -- It was a cool, clear dawn, and the sky was full of Aleutian geese, a bird long known as one of America's most endangered species. Mitch Farro and Dave Steiner, supine in camouflaged blinds near a pond surrounded with goose decoys, hoped to kill a few. 

      A flock of yelping geese wheeled over the decoys. Farro put a goose call to his lips, returned their cries, and the birds dipped lower. As they cupped their wings and prepared to settle on the pond, Steiner fired, knocking down two of them. 

      "That's a pretty bird," said Steiner, as he took one of the geese from his Labrador retriever, Maude. He pinched the goose's sternum. "Very fat. Been eating lots of grass." 

      A few years ago, Steiner and Farro would have faced heavy fines -- perhaps some jail time -- for shooting Aleutians, one of the smaller members of the Canada goose complex, which contains two species and at least six subspecies. In the 1970s, the Aleutian goose population was below 1,000. The bird was declared endangered in 1967, under a special designation that predated the 1971 U.S. Endangered Species Act. 

      But a long-term program to revive the Aleutian goose proved so successful that it was removed from the endangered species list in 2001. Their numbers have exploded, now exceeding 100,000, and during the past decade the population has been growing as much as 20 percent a year. 

      The geese, who spend fall and early winter in the San Joaquin Valley before heading to California's North Coast in late winter and early spring, have become so numerous that they are causing widespread agricultural damage, stripping Humboldt and Del Norte counties' pastures of the grass farmers need for their cattle. 

      While state and federal agencies have allowed hunters to take the birds during the fall waterfowl season since Aleutian geese were removed from the endangered list, this month's hunt in the two counties was the first of its kind: a special late-winter season intended to force the birds off farms to nearby refuges and public lands. 

      Farro, a project manager with the Pacific Coast Fish, Wildlife and Wetlands Restoration Association, said the geese nest on the Aleutian Islands, spend most of the winter in California's Central Valley and migrate en masse to the North Coast, where they fatten on grass until mid-April and return to their Alaskan breeding grounds. 

      "When we only had a few hundred geese (on the North Coast), it wasn't a problem," said Farro, who helped arrange the negotiations between government regulators and land owners that led to the special hunt. "But as their numbers kept climbing, it became obvious they were having a significant impact on local farms." 

      Aleutians are consuming forage valued at $240,000 to $400,000 each year in Humboldt County, Farro said. Fred and Sandy Hanks, ranchers who raise about 200 cattle on 500 acres near Arcata (Humboldt County), said the geese cost them about $14,000 in lost forage and hay last year. 

      "They like pastures that already have been grazed (by cattle), because the new shoots that come up in early spring are sweet and have the highest protein content," said Sandy. "So they key in on private pastures, not the ungrazed public lands." 

      Fred Hanks said he and his wife don't mind supporting some geese on their land, "but when things get to this point, something has to be done. We can't take those kinds of losses, year in and year out." 

      The Hanks worry that the situation will only get worse if goose numbers expand, as many biologists expect. 

      "So there's 100,000 now," said Fred. "What happens to agriculture around here when there's 500,000? A million?" 

      Aleutian geese were once widespread along the Pacific Flyway, but their numbers began declining in the early 20th century as escaped foxes from Aleutian Island fur farms began harrying them on their nesting grounds. After the species was declared endangered, biologists began the arduous process of wiping out the foxes on four islands. 

      Meanwhile, rigorous restrictions were enforced along the bird's migratory stops, ensuring that none would be shot during the waterfowl hunting season. 

      Farro said federal and state wildlife officials may have to change management plans for some refuge lands to accommodate the geese. Private landowners and government regulators have been working on plans that could turn Humboldt County pastures that were reclaimed from estuarine marshes back into wetlands, he said. 

      But Aleutian geese don't like salt marshes -- and unless refuge managers allow more public land to be used as pastures for the geese, Farro said, there will be little incentive for private participation in wetland habitat restoration. 

      "It's going to be a matter of balance," he said. "There are some projects that will be critical, such as restoration of streamside wetland complexes that support endangered or threatened fish. For other properties that don't have such high potential, it may make more sense to keep it in actively grazed pasture." 

      Jimmy Smith, a Humboldt County supervisor and waterfowl hunter, said the special hunt seems to have succeeded in its primary goal: Pushing the geese to public lands. 

      "But these kinds of hunts won't have any affect on their basic numbers," he said. "Geese are smart. You shoot once, and they go someplace where no one is hunting them. We'll maybe kill a few hundred geese during this limited hunt. That will do absolutely nothing in terms of reducing the population." 

      Eric Nelson, director of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge Complex, said continued growth of the Aleutian goose population seems likely. 

      "There's not much they face in the way of biological bottlenecks," Nelson said. "They have plenty of nesting habitat in the Aleutians they haven't begun to exploit. There's lots of midwinter habitat for them in the Central Valley, and the same goes for the late winter and early spring habitat they need here on the North Coast." 

      Most biologists think 60,000 is the optimum size for the Aleutian goose population -- big enough to ensure the survivability of the species and small enough to minimize later winter damage to cattle pastures. While some wildlife experts fear the rapid growth of Aleutians will continue, other scientists think the geese can be controlled by adjusting fall hunting seasons and bag limits. 

      "With goose management, it can be a Goldilocks situation," said Dan Yparraguirre, a California Department of Fish and Game wildlife biologist and an authority on Aleutian geese. "Either too hot or too cold -- or rather, too few or too many. But by carefully monitoring the populations and adjusting hunting regulations year by ayear, we can achieve general goals." 

      E-mail Glen Martin at glenmartin at sfchronicle.com. 
     
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