{"id":246611,"date":"2026-05-27T07:21:39","date_gmt":"2026-05-27T11:21:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=246611"},"modified":"2026-05-26T14:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-05-26T18:53:08","slug":"dont-blame-the-geese-a-closer-look-at-a-campus-wildlife-question","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/05\/dont-blame-the-geese-a-closer-look-at-a-campus-wildlife-question\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Blame the Geese: A Closer Look at a Campus Wildlife Question"},"content":{"rendered":"

Picture yourself on a spectacularly sunny day, walking across one of the picturesque lawns at UConn Storrs. You may be exploring the UConn Arboretum<\/a>, meeting a friend for lunch overlooking Mirror Lake<\/a>, or simply taking an offroad shortcut to get to your building. Suddenly, you feel something squishy under your shoe, and you realize you have landed squarely in some impressively camouflaged goose poop.<\/p>\n

This familiar hypothetical scenario happens because we share campus with a plentiful resident population of Canada geese (Branta canadensis). Whether you are out at the height of summer or enjoying an evening drive to check out the holiday lights in December, the geese are here with you. UConn Department of Earth Sciences associate professor-in-residence Tammo Reichgelt<\/a> argues that whether you view the wildlife as charming or disruptive, the story of the campus geese presents a fascinating example of how humans and wildlife coexist.<\/p>\n

Reichgelt argues that addressing the overabundance of geese is not as simple as removing them, as this was tried in the 1970s and 1980s<\/a>. In fact, actions are already underway that will help address the situation, and no geese will be harmed in the process. Reichgelt explains the root of the issue is a touchy topic: lawns.<\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s take aesthetics out of the equation, as aesthetics are inherently subjective, and consider the Canada goose\u2019s history and ecology,\u201d says Reichgelt. \u201cCanada geese are quite the remarkable conservation success story. At the start of the 20th century, they were almost extinct, in part due to overhunting. Reintroduction and legal protection turned the trend around and by the late 20th century the estimated number of Canada geese in North America was in the millions<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

UConn Storrs provides an ideal place to call home, since freshly cut lawns are not unlike the tundra landscapes where migrating populations of Canada geese nest in the warmer seasons.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdd to that a pond and you\u2019ve got yourself a cozy Canada goose homestead,\u201d says Reichgelt. \u201cThis makes the Canada goose a prominent example of a synanthrope: an organism that has co-opted a human-made biome, because it resembles its native one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other synanthropes that Huskies will be familiar with include the eastern grey squirrel<\/a> (Sciurus carolinensis) and German yellowjackets<\/a> (Vespula germanica), where both species thrive by partially subsisting on food items discarded by humans.<\/p>\n

The geese can raise their young on campus, and statewide, the reliable and relatively safe lawnscape has led some populations of Canada geese to abandon their migration routes, opting instead to live here year-round<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Reichgelt\u2019s research explores another interesting synanthropic relationship, where some species of fern thrive around urban heat islands<\/a>, a curious observation he developed with the help of citizen science data into an ongoing research project<\/a>. These observations provide new insights into how harsh urban environments can transform into novel wildernesses.<\/p>\n

In the case of the geese, Reichgelt points out that, as with anything, too many can be a problem, and the geese are often cited as significant sources of pollution to nearby water bodies. The goose poop is a source of bacteria and nutrients which boost further bacteria and\/or algal growth, leading to eutrophication and poor water quality. While this is true to an extent, Reichgelt stresses this is not the full story.<\/p>\n

Mirror Lake serves as a watershed for much of the Storrs campus, says Reichgelt. As a watershed, the runoff from campus, including stormwater and landscaping runoff feed into Mirror Lake<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Mirror Lake, we have a cocktail of excess sediment, fertilizer, and pollutants like heavy metals and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that are typically associated with paved surfaces. And, the Canada goose droppings, as a cherry on top,\u201d says Reichgelt.<\/p>\n

This is all to say that placing the blame for water quality issues squarely on the geese is to overlook other elements. Also, Reichgelt explains that goose poop settles in the sediment relatively quicky, and for this reason, research shows it doesn\u2019t contribute significantly to nutrient loading<\/a> in the water column.<\/p>\n

\u201cGoose poop can contribute to the poor water quality in the lake, but probably not as much as anything that stays suspended,\u201d says Reichgelt. Ironically, the place where the exploding goose populations really cause trouble is in a place where humans are relatively rare: the high Arctic tundra.<\/p>\n

Reichgelt explains that hyperabundant goose populations are associated with a host of issues on the tundra. They change the local habitat<\/a>, they are associated with changes in invertebrate communities<\/a>, as well as the decline of other tundra-nesting birds<\/a>. These geese fly north to nest on the tundra after overwintering on lawns, golf courses, and farmland.<\/p>\n

This exemplifies the interconnectedness of the planet\u2019s biota and ecosystems and while it might seem like the logical solution would be to remove the geese, Reichgelt suggests a more holistic approach by targeting the source of the problem, which is reducing their preferred lawn habitats. This aligns with growing interest in biodiversity-supporting initiatives to change the way we approach landscaping like \u201cNo Mow May<\/a>\u201d, planting more native plants, roadside revegetation efforts<\/a>, and proposed tax credits for converting lawns to meadows<\/a>, including an initiative in Connecticut<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For the remaining lawn space, researchers are exploring ways to make turfgrass management more sustainable<\/a>, for example by reducing reliance on pesticides, exploring autonomous mowers, and promoting the use of turfgrass varieties that are less reliant on water and fertilizer.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlanting wildflower meadows and shrubs on the lakeside would decrease runoff into Mirror Lake, as well as reduce goose habitat. Increasing vegetation around Mirror Lake is already part of its development plan<\/a>,\u201d says Reichgelt. \u201cThe healthy middle ground is to dedicate much more space to the beautiful native plant communities of Connecticut and less to lawn grass. No one wants to sit in that goose poop anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

UConn is home to many other ecological diversity, sustainability, and pollinator-supporting efforts. It has ranked on the Xerces Society Bee Campus USA list since 2017 and remains a <\/em>globally high-ranking<\/em><\/a> sustainable campus.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What\u2019s good for the goose is good for the gander. And that includes lawns<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":246621,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2226,2460,2387,2235,2198,2225,2234],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2093],"class_list":["post-246611","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-clas","category-faculty","category-sustainability","category-today-homepage","category-tolland-county","category-uconn-storrs","category-university-life"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-03 12:50:03","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246611","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=246611"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":246669,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/246611\/revisions\/246669"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/246621"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=246611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=246611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=246611"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=246611"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=246611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}