Littleton’s near Chatfield Reservoir in south Jefferson County has been having a goose problem, and the homeowners association hopes some cardboard silhouettes will keep the birds away.
The neighborhood playground near a pond is a favorite spot for geese to leave droppings.
To combat the problem, the neighborhood association has placed cardboard silhouettes of coyotes around the playground in hopes of scaring off the geese.
“We’re trying to keep the geese from the playground equipment,” said Sally Janssen, vice president of the Trailmark HOA. “People are complaining.”
A few weeks ago, Janssen bought cardboard coyotes and placed them around playground, but all three were stolen. She had three more at home and put them up just before Memorial Day with signs asking people not to remove the coyotes and a note urging parents to warn their kids who might be playing on the playground. Some parents said that the fake coyotes had startled their children.
So far, the coyotes seem to be a moderate success, as the playground area and the sidewalk around it is mostly clear of goose droppings.
“Whether it helps or not is anyone’s guess,” said Janssen, who added she has gotten feedback that the silhouettes are working and also from others who don’t feel the geese are intimidated at all. “They seem to have moved. They still are along the trails, just not along the playground areas as they used to be,” she said.
Trailmark resident Kandiss Forsyth was at the playground with her daughter, Kamryn, 9, and said the geese have been mainstays in the neighborhood for as long as she has lived there. Their droppings are all over the neighborhood.
She said that since the coyote silhouettes have appeared, it seems the geese have steered clear of the playground. She just hopes that people will refrain from stealing them. She would even consider getting them for other parts of the neighborhood.
“I think they seem to help. Now if people will leave them alone,” she said of the silhouettes. “I would say itap working.”
According to Colorado Parks and Wildlife, the goose population has been on the rise throughout the metro area for that past 20 years. The geese mostly do not migrate south in the winter and have thrived with more water sources such as lakes and streams in the area.
“They tend to thrive near people, near ponds and waterways,” said Jennifer Churchill, spokeswoman for Colorado Parks and Wildlife. “There’s a good population of Canada geese.”
The geese don’t pose any health risk, according to Churchill, but mostly people are irritated by their droppings and the mess it creates.
Other ways of chasing off geese include noisemakers that scare off geese, but also can be a nuisance to neighbors in the area. Groups can get a permit from the wildlife department to spray goose eggs in an effort to control the population or grow the grass in the area longer than normal as geese will want to see over the grass from the lake.
Geese also don’t have any natural predators in the area. Coyotes will go after goose eggs, but the geese themselves are not part of a coyote’s typical food source.
“Itap more of an issue of having an abundant population, which makes sidewalks and walkways messy,” Churchill said.
The coyote silhouettes are a popular way of deterring geese, according to Churchill, but they typically only will work for a limited period of time until the geese realize they pose no threat.
“It depends on how much geese want to be in that area,” Churchill said.