In the last few years, hundreds of geese have taken up residence on Island Lake, encouraged by local residents who offer them food.
But goose excrement causes excessive weed growth in the lake and can cause a condition called “swimmer’s itch,” which makes water unsuitable for swimming.
So, in their quest to rid their town of geese, Island Lake officials have tried shooing the birds by dragging a rope across a patch of open water where they congregate when the lake is mostly frozen.
They have even posted a plea to residents in the village newsletter not to feed the fowl.
Lately, the Village Board has been researching whether it can legally ban people from feeding the geese. Board members had seen pictures of “No Feeding” signs from Lake Geneva, Wis., and heard evidence about the damage geese can cause to a lake.
But Trustee Louis Sharp asked the Lake Management Committee to find a copy of an existing municipal ordinance before he would propose a feeding ban to his committee.
“What we wanted to find out is if we could legally write it,” said Sharp, chairman of the board’s Ordinance and Administrative Committee.
So a member of the Lake Management Committee obtained a copy of a Columbia, Mo., ordinance from an official at the U.S. Department of Agriculture and passed it on to the board at last week’s committee meeting.
There’s only one problem with the ordinance. It ruffled so many feathers in Columbia several years ago that it was repealed a month after it was passed, said Mike Sanford, director of public health for Columbia and Boone County, Mo.
“In Columbia, we had two factions, the goose lovers and the goose haters,” Sanford said. “In our case, the goose haters influenced our City Council to pass this law against feeding. So after a month, there was so much outcry that the goose lovers got the City Council to rescind it.”
Sanford suggested a few tactics to make geese feel unwelcome. Columbia issues noisemaking permits to lakefront residents who want to scare off geese. Sanford also suggests spreading rocks on shore land where geese congregate. “Geese don’t like to walk across those,” he said.
Island Lake’s Ordinance and Administrative Committee has tentative plans to discuss an anti-feeding ordinance at its meeting Saturday.
Post powwow: Three panel members will discuss the preservation of the 105-acre historic district at Ft. Sheridan from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Wednesday in the American Legion Post, 1957 N. Sheridan Rd., Highland Park.
Carol J. Dyson, architectural coordinator of the Illinois Historic Preservation Agency; Susan Benjamin, architectural historian with Historic Certification Consultants of Chicago; and Kathy King, coordinator of the Ft. Sheridan Redevelopment Authority, will speak at the colloquium.
