Fowl waters // Loring Park supporters hope to control the pond's algae by discouraging its

primary polluters: geese and ducks.

Steve Brandt; Staff Writer
Publication Date: October 29, 1995 Page: 03B Section: NEWS Edition: METRO


Just how loose is a goose?

Loose enough to produce its own body weight in droppings every
month and a half.

And that makes geese the prime source of the phosphorus that
turns Loring Park pond into a vast algae bloom in the late summer,
when the pond yields bubbles of hydrogen sulfide gas with an odor of
rotten eggs.

Armed with that conclusion from a recent hydrological study of
the pond, the Loring neighborhood in Minneapolis now hopes to spend
$197,000 on discouraging geese and ducks while improving pond
quality. Some residents would even discourage the waterfowl feeding
that's part of the park's tradition.

The 24-acre park, which holds as many as 250 Canada geese
during the fall migration, is a microcosm of goose problems
experienced at other citified ponds across the Twin Cities area.
Canada geese nearly disappeared as a breeding population throughout
the northern-tier states before efforts to rebuild their numbers in
the 1940s and 1950s, according to University of Minnesota biologist
Jim Cooper.

Minnesota was one of the leading states in this effort, Cooper
said, and the expanded urbanized area of the Twin Cities added ever
more lawn to their grazing area. "They found the happiest homes
they've probably ever had," he said.

That problem has come home to roost at Loring. "Geese are
grazers and, like all grazing animals, they eat a lot of grass,"
Cooper said. "The nutritional value of grass is rather low. And so
what goes in comes out." Between 28 and 92 times a day, according to
one scientific review.

58 pounds a year

Park waterfowl, with a count averaging 94 geese and 80 ducks
during the seven-month grazing season, dump an estimated 58 pounds
of phosphorus on the park annually. That's the estimate of Hal
Runke of Barr Engineering Co., a water quality consultant for the
pond. Washed into the pond, this fertilizes algae, turning
the water murky and green, and the decaying plant matter depletes
oxygen at the bottom. This releases more nutrients from bottom
sediment, feeding pond weeds.

The pond has been in this eutrophic condition for years. It
got somewhat better in the mid-1970s when the flow of nutrient-rich
stormwater was diverted. But without action, the problem of goose
nutrients is likely to worsen water quality. "They're just like
humans. They keep coming back year after year. They bring their
young, and their young bring their young," Cooper said.

Buffer zone

So the Loring Park neighborhood devoted $20,000 from its
Neighborhood Revitalization Program (NRP) budget to study pond
conditions.

That study recommended that a broad buffer strip of bushes be
planted around the pond for two reasons. Geese prefer open
shorelines to have easy access to water in case of predators or
other disturbances; a planted shoreline encourages geese to feed
elsewhere. The vegetation also will help filter pollutants and dirt
from runoff. Runke's report said other benefits from spending about
$20,000 on shore vegetation include diminished shore erosion and
increased habitat for other wildlife.

The report recommended two other measures to improve the pond.
One is adding an aerator to add oxygen to the pond at a cost of
$15,000. The most expensive fix, at $162,000, would be to install a
50-foot-wide plastic liner around the edges of the pond to eliminate
three-quarters of the pond's leakage problem.

Seepage problem

The park system pumps 12 million gallons of water into the pond
in an average year, replacing an estimated 9 million gallons that
seep into the water table. A century ago, springs fed the pond so
sufficiently that it overflowed into Bassett Creek. But development
and the construction of Interstate Hwy. 94 along the park's western
edge, with accompanying storm drains, left the pond 10 feet above
the water table.

The pond improvements are part of a $3 million master plan for
the park. About $1.2 million of the Loring Park neighborhood's NRP
money has been allocated for the park, and the organization will
seek the rest elsewhere. The money hasn't been allocated for
specific improvements, but a citizen committee rated the pond
highest among park priorities.

With this investment in the pond, some also would discourage
feeding waterfowl.

"That's a tough one," Cooper said. "Canada geese, like most
wildlife in cities, do not necessarily need our kindness to survive
and do well. A Canada goose eating popcorn is not as well off as
the goose feeding on the grass it's standing on. The reason we feed
geese is that it makes you feel good. There are people that develop
good feelings and because of their life, it's important to them.
Who am I to say they shouldn't do that?"