Sacha Peter

On the August 4, 2010 edition of the 6pm news, the story about Canada Geese at Cultus Lake Park stated roughly that the only practical option being explored by the park board is shooting the Geese.

This is not true.

The motion on the August 11th agenda will be:

THAT to reduce the impact of Canada Geese droppings in 2011, staff investigate the feasibility of installing barriers (e.g. tall grass) at the lakeshore and the feasibility of culling the geese population and report back the costs and impact of both options; and

THAT staff be authorized to contact the FVRD and the provincial government to investigate joint options for the purposes of reducing the impact of Canada Geese around the Cultus Lake area.

As per custom, media loves to get the snazziest soundbite, and for sure the CBC TV news report did that. The CBC Radio interview (August 3, bottom link) was more accurate.

Where can you find the Geese? In June and July, they can easily be found at the day-use area at Cultus Lake Provincial Park (Google Map):

The beach at this area of the provincial park is a goose magnet. During the peak part of the goose invasion season, it is nearly impossible to lay a blanket in this area without having its surface on some form of goose droppings.

In Cultus Lake Park, you can find geese at Main Beach and also the entire walkway along the coast.

In August, most of the geese have left the area. If the geese find enough food in the area, they will no longer migrate.

Everybody in the community that has expressed views on this issue agrees that Canada Geese, while nice to look at, have a huge issue with the large amounts of droppings. As a result, the board should look into ways of minimizing damage from geese in 2011.

I’ve explored the multiple ways that Geese can be deterred from pooping all over the park. It boils down to a few practical methods, and a whole host of non-practical methods. Fortunately, other jurisdictions in BC have been encountering the same issue with geese and I have been able to take some lessons learned from their experiences.

In particular, Okanagan jurisdictions have faced 100-fold increases in goose populations over the past decade, and have years of experience fighting the issue. A good summary is from the Osoyoos Lake Water Quality Society or Okanagan Valley Goose Management Program, although I have harvested many reports from other jurisdictions that essentially come to the same conclusion after many rounds of trial-and-error.

Practical methods:

1. Installing Barriers at the Lakeshore – An example would be growing tall grass at the lakeshore. While having the obvious advantage of being relatively easy to maintain, its primary disadvantage is it serves as a significant visual distraction. Also, this decision would fundamentally change the nature of the main beach area, which currently has sand.

2. Culling. A blunt way of describing this would be “shooting the geese”. A more politically correct terminology is called “wildlife management”. Periodic culling is proven to deter geese from staying around in an area. The obvious disadvantage is cost (you have to hire somebody to do it) and noise considerations. There is also the ethical/animal concern of killing wildlife in the name of park beautification. Indeed, such a decision would become very political. Finally, there is the issue of complying with surrounding legislation, such as the federal Migratory Birds Convention Act and/or the BC Wildlife Act.

Non-practical methods:

1. Windmills and other visual distractions – 2010 was a trial year for pinstripes, soft stakes, and other such methods in Cultus Lake Park, and this has proven to have little to no effect on geese.

2. Harassment – This method (e.g. hiring somebody to chase birds, or training dogs to doing so) is cost-prohibitive. Also, unless if the harassment is continuous (i.e. every 3 minutes or so), the geese become sensitized to the harassment and do not go away.

3. Encouraging nesting in other areas – While this sounds good in theory, unless if the prime geese spots in Cultus Lake Park are no longer considered prime by the geese, the geese will continue to populate the park even if there are other good areas available. In particular, the provincial park grounds have multiple prime locations, and this has not prevented flocks of geese from camping at Cultus Lake Park’s shores. Not helping the matter is people feeding the geese, which encourage them even further to stay around people.

4. Noise Generators – While these methods may be effective in orchids to scare away birds as the noise replicates the sound of shooting, it is unlikely that hearing the sound of this every two minutes, heard across the entire park boundary will be too popular. Essentially this is a decision that trades noise pollution for reducing the amount of goose poop on the ground. Finally, the geese do become sensitized to this method over time.

5. Stealing eggs from nests – Locating and finding nests is not a trivial issue; although this can be effective at slowing down reproduction rates, it will not reduce the existing population. Also, this can be dangerous for those that try it!

Some pictures (thanks go to JN for the pictures!):

Attached are two memos from the FVRD, in regards to their OCP consultation:

Item 10-04 1-Staff report re EA E OCP Update Survey Results
Item 10-04 2-Survey Results – Columbia Valley, Lindell Beach and Cultus Lake

The salient part of the results is that the open house was attended by 40-50 community members, but only 25/812 surveys that were mailed out were handed back. It’s quite apparent that getting information from the community is going to be a huge issue – usually this implies that “status quo” is the message.

I made a motion to the board, which was carried, to request reporting from Sunnyside concerning the decision to defer seasonal camping fees until June 30.

I am happy to have received information that approximately half the seasonal campers exercised this option, and payment has been received by all except for four cases. Two cases dealt with rejected credit cards, while two dealt with incorrectly written cheques. These four cases have been dealt with.

In the 2010 camping season, all 349 seasonal camping sites were successfully booked.

I also eariler made a comprehensive motion regarding business reporting of Sunnyside and Vedder campgrounds, and will continue to work with staff in ensuring that the policies the board carries are implementable and will convey proper business information to the board. Sunnyside consists of approximately half of Cultus Lake’s revenue base and it goes without saying that proper management of Sunnyside is critical to the park’s overall operation.

Historically, the board should have paid more attention to their “crown corporations” instead of being fixated on issues such as governance. Optimizing revenues and expenses on the business side will result in a much better consolidated financial picture.

I will shamelessly copy and paste the article by Jennifer Feinberg of the Chilliwack Progress as follows:

A traditional river canoe completed by B.C. Lt.-Gov. Steven Point on Vancouver Island has some surprising local connections, say members of the Cultus Lake Community Association.

Association executives Dave Clyne and Margaret Wilson presented a slide show at city hall yesterday, sharing highlights of the traditional honouring ceremonies they attended on April 10.

It turns out the elaborate carving on the canoe features a mythical water creature from Cultus Lake known as Slahkum.

The Cultus Lake reps were invited to a pair of events at Government House and on the beach at Ross Bay, where Point found the partially carved canoe, after the request to bring the wooden vessel here, had to be turned down officially due to scheduling conflicts.

“It was a wonderful experience to be there for the launch, and that feeling continued all day,” Wilson told the Progress before the council meeting.

“Our hearts were completely captured by the sight of two eagles who appeared overhead just at the start of the ceremonial launch of the canoe.”

The river canoe is named Shxwtitostel, which means “a safe place to cross the river” in the traditional aboriginal language.

The carving was a labour of love for more than a year by Point, a former Skowkale Chief, who shared the carving work with a local carver, Chief Tony Hunt, who asked to help with the project.

Wilson originally wrote to Lt.-Gov. Point to ask if the canoe could be featured at the Cultus Lake Canoe races in June.

The canoe is a gift to the province and will be touring B.C. this year.

“We were assured at the honouring ceremony that it will come to Cultus Lake eventually,” she said.

The Chatelaine handed the reps one of the traditional blankets used at the ceremony at Government House, which they appreciated immensely and have been sharing the story with a range of agencies and associations locally ever since.

The whole experience was particularly meaningful, “especially in light of the quest for unity and reconciliation, which is characterizing Lt.-Gov. Point’s term of office,” added Wilson.

The canoe is the type that would have been used for harpoon fishing.

“It has a rather intricate design of a water creature on the bottom, almost like a dragon,” Clyne said. “The canoe is not that long, but it’s heavy as all get out.”

The Cultus rep said he also spotted the two eagles mating overhead during the launch, which he took note of mentally, and later asked Lt.-Gov Point if he had seen them, when they had a moment for introductions.

Point relayed to Clyne that he had indeed also seen the eagles, and was overcome with emotion from the experience, sharing that when he and Chatelaine Gwen Point moved into their official residence, there were 18 eagles circling overhead on that auspicious day.

On the June 23, 2010 meeting, the board is having a public information meeting with regards to the potential sale of lease lots 233 First Avenue and 212 First Avenue.

Although I have strong thoughts on the positive and negative aspects of this proposal, to not influence any responses to this meeting I will reserve my comments until after this date.

This post is just a courtesy for those that don’t have the time to go through the public agenda.

Our Accounting Clerk, Alec Cameron, passed away of cancer earlier this week.

Although I didn’t get to know him as much as I would have liked, during his employment at the park board, in the interactions we had he was very friendly and had a wonderful sense of humour.

I would like to express my condolences to his family. I will miss him.

On the morning of Saturday, April 24, Chair Brian Nokleby and commissioners Owen Skonberg and myself met with the Sunnyside Seasonal Camper group, which included Barb Connop, Lesley Davis, Karen Griffiths, Teresa Lesberg, Michelle Connop and Bonnie Haus.

They courteously left a document which consolidated the questions they had. I have scanned it and attached it here for reference. I apologize for the lateness of reply; I actually had a drafted response sitting around at the end of April but never completed it until now.

Once again, please note that these answers are from my individual role as a commissioner – what I write here is not necessarily the view of the park board or other commissioner’s views. Also, I will not address all questions – some questions are staff-level questions, while some are board-level.

0. Create a payment plan – right now seasonal campers must pay their dues in one lump sum, and splitting this up into monthly payments is a possibility. My only observation is that there is a cost to processing multiple payments rather than a lump-sum payment, especially via credit card (where interchange fees are not trivial).

1. Extending the seasonal camping season past the end of September would be unlikely. The issue is that the rest of Sunnyside would have to remain open and volume in October would likely not warrant the expense, although we would look at the numbers.

2. No major capital projects in 2010, but the capital budgeting process for projects this autumn will determine improvements for 2011. Note that 2009 had a very costly improvement with respect to the provision of wireless internet access.

4/5/6. The $25 administration fee is there not as a revenue source, but rather because it costs a lot of staff time to process deposits since it is a very manual process.

7. I would not support a “price cap” to future increases, simply because prices are set as economic conditions warrant. That said, it is unlikely we will be repeating the actions of last year.

10. See question #2, requests of this nature would flow up from staff to the board for the 2011 capital budget.

13. The tier system will be reviewed at year-end.

16. Our bylaw officers (Park Patrol) have a job to enforce by-laws and to maintain a security presence around Cultus Lake Park. Individuals, including employees of the park, will have opinions but they will be judged on their performance.

On the April 28, 2010 meeting I reported on the update of BC Timber Sales Amendment 21 and its impact on Cultus Lake Park. I made reference to a document by Chartwell Consulting, dated August 25, 2009, which explores the potential impact on the water and soil quality in and around the proposed Vedder Mountain cutblocks. As a result of this report, BC Timber Sales is altering their harvesting in the Fin Creek community watershed and not harvesting their VE300 cutblock.

The document can be found here.

For those uninitiated in water and soils management (such as myself), I found this document from cover to cover to be a very interesting read.

You can also view the location of the various cutblocks by clicking here.