Geese cull stalls as numbers are low

INVADED: A Canada geese invasion messed up Henley Lake prior to a cull in 2011, which raised a storm of protest over how it was done. PHOTO/FILE

The expected cull on Canada geese inhabiting Masterton's Henley Lake appears to have been put on the backburner, probably due to few geese being visible round the lake in the last few months.

A cull was pencilled in for November but according to many regular visitors to the lake few geese have been sighted since that tentative decision was arrived at.

Meanwhile, a history of the bird's introduction to Wairarapa has been made available to Wairarapa Times-Age clearly showing the bird now officially declared a pest and said to lay waste to pasture was anything but unwelcome, at least in some circles, when it was first brought here from the South Island.

In the 1970s the Wellington Acclimatisation Society drew up a policy for "progressively establishing" Canada geese throughout the region as "viable breeding units".

It sought to encourage a geese population, controlled at a level where an annual harvest of what was regarded as a prized game bird would keep things on an even keel.

The plan was to bring 15 pairs of pre-fledgling juvenile birds to Wairarapa from the South Island each year for five years starting from January, 1980.

They were to be "pinioned" in such a manner to render them permanently flightless.

The society's senior field officer Ian Buchanan said at that time establishing Canada geese in Wairarapa and throughout other areas in the Wellington district was a long term development project.

He said there was no guarantee the geese would establish themselves "in any numbers" due to the lack of an extensive, suitable habitat but it was hoped over 10 years to build up numbers "to a level where limited hunting of this very desirable game bird is possible."

Mr Buchanan went further by stating the society accepted full responsibility for developing the programme and for any control measures needed in the future "to prevent agricultural damage".

This followed on from earlier, limited introduction of the birds to Wairarapa with the first geese coming here from the South Island in 1971 when a pair were given to a private breeder.

Two years later the acclimatisation society brought in 12 birds which were all pinioned and homed by private breeders and other small transfers of birds from down South to Wairarapa were made in succeeding years.

It was claimed by those supporting the introduction of the geese that because the geese didn't breed until they were three years old, and broods only averaged two or three birds that no large increase in geese populations could be expected "for many, many years".

It was foreseen flocks would reach 50 to 100 geese in 10 to 15 years' time and when those size flocks were attained "increases will be controlled by limited hunting".

From early correspondence between the society and Federated Farmers it is clear farmers' attitudes to bringing in the geese ranged from conditional approval to outright hostility. Over the years following their introduction the geese proved to be well adapted to life in Wairarapa and in the succeeding decades bred up to the stage farmers began complaining that huge flocks were marching across pastureland devastating the grasslands and leaving behind a slimy mess.

They also inhabited Henley Lake in such numbers a cull was organised in January, 2011.

This was carried out in such a fashion it raised a storm of protest as people reported the geese were being gunned down, often in view of lake users including children, others had their necks wrung and some were bludgeoned to death.

Two months later the ministry of conservation officially declared Canada geese to be a pest and, as an unprotected species, this allowed the unrestricted hunting of the geese all year round.

Earlier this year it was claimed at a meeting of Masterton District Council that geese numbers had built up again at Henley Lake and that another cull was needed, with a rider added it was to be much more humanely carried out.

The cull was expected to be done last month but has not gone ahead.