Feathered Friends

What’s the problem with our feathered friends?

While geese, swans, and ducks may seem like a beautiful and natural part of a lakeside environment, they are actually causing several problems for humans and water quality.  These problems mainly stem from their overpopulation.  Lush, green turf grass planted right up to the edge of our lakes, ponds, and streams has created the perfect habitat for Canada Geese and Mute Swans.  For this reason, they are present in much higher numbers and for longer periods of time than they were historically.  In addition, the Mute Swan is not even native to the United States– it was introduced from Europe.

These large populations leave a lot of droppings behind.  A single Canada Goose eats 3-4 pounds of grass per day and can create as much as 2 – 3 pounds of waste per day!  These droppings are not only unsightly, they can also make people sick and add nutrients and bacteria like E. coli to our lakes and streams.  Geese and swans can also be aggressive, especially if they have built a nest nearby, creating another risk to human health.

The overpopulation of waterfowl can also seriously damage native plants in and around lakes and streams.  For example, Mute Swans require eight pounds of aquatic plants as food each day!  As Canada Geese and Mute Swans look for and take plants for food and nest material, they are robbing other wildlife of important habitat.  Many of the aquatic plants – such as eel grass – are scooped from the lakebed by the waterfowl and form giant mats of floating nuisance weeds that are blown to shore.

What can you do about it?

  • Don’t feed them!  Feeding waterfowl encourages them to come back to a site (and they often invite their friends!), so avoiding feeding geese, swans, and even ducks.  Although ducks are not as serious of a problem as Canada Geese and Mute Swans, it’s nearly impossible to feed ducks without geese and swans soon following.  Besides being an environmental benefit, this action is healthier for the birds as well; the bread people typically feed them lacks in the nutrients and roughage waterfowl need in their diets.
  • Scoop the poop.   If you clean up your shoreline or your pier by removing droppings, make sure you are disposing of them properly.  Don’t sweep or wash them from your lawn or pier into the water, that’s just adding more nutrients and bacteria into the lake or stream!  Instead, scoop the droppings and throw them in the trash, flush them down the toilet, bury them in the yard, or put them in an underground pet waste digester.  For help finding scoopers, pet waste digesters, or other products to manage this waste, visit our Products & Services page.
  • Utilize native plants.  Want to keep geese and swans out of your yard?  Grow native plants along your shoreline or utilize them in your landscaping.  The birds like open areas so they can watch out for predators.  Planting a buffer of native grasses, flowers, or shrubs along your shoreline or utilizing native plants in your yard can create a visual block; geese and swans will tend to avoid those areas.  Visit our shorelines page for more information on these techniques.
  • Take charge.  If you have a large population of Canada Geese, you may need to take more aggressive measures to reduce or eliminate the group.  Nest and egg destruction is one such action.  Another approach is to trap the geese and either relocate or euthanize them.  Both of these actions require permits.  Several resources are listed below to help you if you are interested in these activities.

Still have questions?

The Indiana Department of Natural Resources and Purdue University have created several great resources to help you better understand these waterfowl, the impacts they have, and how we can deal with them.


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