HILLSBORO, Ore. — Ron Dobbins backs his red GM Sierra pickup into the field, climbs out and lets down the tailgate. “Go get ’em, girl!” he shouts, and his chocolate Lab, JD, springs to the ground. Within seconds the dog is pelting across the field toward a squad of geese 200 yards distant.
With noisy complaint, the birds rise up and whirl away, falling into V formation as they go. JD, tall, rangy and muscular, rounds off her chase as the last of the stragglers reluctantly leave the feeding ground.
Dobbins, with “Goose Patrol” logos on the doors of his pickup, heads to his next field. It’s a 30-mile circuit, picking his way through Hillsboro’s increasingly thick traffic, to keep geese from destroying his newly planted crimson clover, ryegrass, peas and wheat.
“We do this twice a day,” Dobbins said. At the peak of migration, one of his employees is a full-time goose chaser.
Agricultural damage from geese is a decades-old problem, and farmers in the Willamette and Lower Columbia River valleys of Oregon and Southwest Washington don’t expect help with it any time soon.
It’s government policy, they say, to protect and maintain large flocks of migratory birds. And it’s apparent, they say, that farmers are essentially expected to feed them.
They’ve come to believe that federal and state wildlife agencies don’t care if the birds lay waste to crops.
“Why is the burden put on us in the first place?” asks Marie Gadotti, who farms in neighboring Columbia County. “Everybody knows there is damage.”
A 1997 report by the Oregon Department of Agriculture — apparently no one has studied the problem since — estimated geese cause $14.9 million in crop damage annually. Gadotti, who won a 2011 Oregon Farm Bureau award for her work on the issue, estimates geese cost her $50,000 to $60,000 each year in labor and diminished yields.
Farmers would like to see longer hunting seasons and eased restrictions on hazing geese out of fields. Obtaining exploding noisemakers, for example, requires clearance by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Farmers also believe wildlife refuges, established as havens for waterfowl, should plant crops to feed the birds as well. They’ve asked for more hunting check stations, so hunters aren’t discouraged by having to drive far out of their way after shooting geese.
Dobbins would like to be able to leave dead geese in a field after hunting rather than take them to a check station. Coyotes and hawks drawn to the carcass would keep flocks from landing, he said.
The problems may be clear from farmers’ point of view, but changing the status quo is not easy. Roger Beyer, executive director of the Oregon Seed Council, said the situation is complicated by migratory bird treaties and compacts involving Native American tribes, the U.S. and Canadian governments and the states of Oregon, Washington, Alaska and California.
Alaskan natives, for example, are allowed a subsistence-level hunt and oppose any proposal to reduce goose numbers.
“It’s a long, slow process,” Beyer said.
Cackling Canada geese, the ones chased out of Dobbins’ field by JD the dog, are considered the biggest problem. A 2014 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service report estimates 281,300 cacklers spend the winter in Oregon and Washington. The 2013 estimate was 312,200. Year-to-year population fluctuations are common; the wildlife service has set a population goal of 250,000 cacklers.
Geese don’t just nibble the tops of young plants, they pull them out by the roots. Even with patrols, Dobbins and Gadotti could point out bare spots in fields. Geese affect the timing of planting and choice of crop rotations as well, the farmers say.
“They like all the young crops,” Dobbins said. “It’s like when we go to the salad bar, we like all the fresh stuff.”
Dobbins and Gadotti say the problem is getting worse because many geese have become year-round residents and no longer migrate. Geese used to arrive for two weeks in the spring and two weeks in the fall, the farmers say.
“We’re saying they’re not leaving,” Gadotti said.
Farmers aren’t giving up, either. Dobbins says the “Goose Patrol” logos on his pickup doors are an effort to keep the issue in front of the public, especially urban residents who don’t make the connection between wildlife and crop damage.
A network of fellow farmers and other landowners help keep an eye on fields, and let Dobbins know when flocks are settling. Landowners allow each other vehicle access between fields to facilitate hazing.
At this point, the farmers will take help wherever they can find it.
Passing by one of his fields, Dobbins nods and smiles.
“In that grove of trees we’ve got a nice family of coyotes that take care of things for us,” he said.
Online
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Cackling Canada geese report: http://www.fws.gov/migratorybirds/NewReportsPublications/PopulationStatus/Waterfowl/StatusReport2014.pdf