Managing Waterfowl on the River Avon

Stratford-upon-Avon town has 2 miles of river enjoyed by 24,000 residents and 3 ½ million visitors per year.  The river home to about 100 swans and numerous small waterfowl who are swamped by nearly 800 visiting and 100 resident Canada Geese:
This creates population pressure; it destroys vegetation and deposits and the geese ½ ton of excrement on the river bank every day.

The geese also harass visitors & small children and have decimated the Duck population decimated.

What have we done about this problem?
The Stratford-upon-Avon Town Management Partnership, working with residents, businesses and volunteers has implemented the Geesepeace programme.

The programme, which is supported by the RSPCA has three main aims:

To stablise the population of geese through birth control – i.e. oil eggs of all nesting pairs, following Department Environment Farming and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) guidelines, to prevent hatching.

Promote “responsible” feeding to avoid angel wing and discourage visiting Canada Geese.

After breeding -- before and after moulting -- herd geese with sheep dogs to encourage visiting birds to go back to their own nesting site.

Stratford-upon-Avon was the first town in the UK to implement this initiative from our friends at Geesepeace in the US. It is now it’s third year and has been a successful way of managing the river bank in an effective and humane way.

Conference 2007 material and pictures below: