Every summer a roundup reminiscent of old western cattle drives occurs at the Wilson Hill Wildlife Management Area in Louisville. But there are several key differences -- rather than riding horses, the “cowboys” paddle canoes and kayaks, and rather than cows, their quarry is Canada geese. And rather than the open range, this roundup occurs in a shallow, expansive, cattail-lined wetland near the St. Lawrence River. The Wilson Hill Goose Drive is an annual event hosted by the DEC that invites the public to assist them in herding resident Canada geese in order for wildlife biologists to obtain data on the age, sex, and population size. As a public event, it is an opportunity for community members to connect with wildlife professionals to learn more about the work government agencies do to conserve local species.

The Nature Up North team loaded our boats up on the van on a sunny summer morning for the drive up to Wilson Hill for this year’s event. Upon arrival we found a mixed crowd of DEC employees, college students, families, and other community members. After instructions we launched our boats into the wetland, navigating around sand bars and tree stumps, remnants of when this area was flooded during the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway in the 1950s. Paddling leisurely, it took about 30 minutes to spot the first geese. With the geese in sight, we formed a long boom across the entire pond, which would enable us to herd them towards the corral area. A line of paddlers several hundred yards wide closed in around the geese, forcing them to group together in a large floating flock. 

At this point you might be wondering "Why the geese didn’t just fly away?" The Goose Drive is held in late June/early July each year to coincide with the time of year when Canada geese have molted and lost their flight feathers. It will take geese 4-5 weeks to regrow new flight feathers, and they will be out of the air until early August (although it should be noted that a couple of late-molters were able to fly out of the water, escaping our efforts to corral them).

Surrounding the geese on three sides, we drove them towards a choke point on the far shore where they would be herded into a narrow trail leading to a holding pen. With the geese secured in a fenced area, paddlers exited the water with their boats (some more gracefully than others), and we were greeted on the shore to a lunch of hamburgers and hot dogs provided by the Massena Rod and Gun Club.  

Finally it was time to get down to the dirty (feathery?) work: wrangling and tagging the geese.  Professional handlers handed off geese to volunteers, who relayed them to DEC biologists for tagging and data collection. I was particularly impressed by the number of kids who were able to successfully handle flapping, unhappy geese (some of which were half their size), and the calm professionalism of the scientists who quickly tagged and identified the sex of hundreds of geese. With the data collected, the geese were released back into the pond. 

Thanks to the DEC, the Massena Rod and Gun Club, and all the volunteers who made this such a fun and successful event!