Faced with the problem of residents asking for help in dealing with Canada geese on their lawns, the Muttontown Village board invited Eric Swenson, TOB Superintendent of the Environmental Planning Conservation Outreach Division of the Department of Environmental Resources, to speak to them about the issue.

Mr. Swenson said the town is willing to include the Village of Muttontown in its GeesePeace program for $6,000, half the cost to their municipal partners. The Muttontown board voted unanimously to budget for the program, pending an OK from Village Attorney Steven Leventhal on signing the no-liability contract required by the town to join the program.

The village now has to get residents to sign onto the project. Village Clerk Vivien Van Wagner said, "The village will make a conserted effort to pull everyone together to deal with the problem residents are facing."

The village is going to contact the local civic associations to get the public's cooperation. Muttontown has sumps and pond areas where geese like to nest - and there are two country clubs in the village that use dogs to chase the geese. The town is chasing geese off both the Syosset and Jericho School District property. With geese being pushed off areas contiguous to Muttontown, it appears that they, too, need to add to the job of showing Canada Geese that they better find a better habitat.

Mr. Swenson said, using the GeesePeace method, the town is reducing the number of geese born each year which helps diminish the problem.

Mayor Julianne Beckerman asked if the town has the needed resources to take on the village as a partner. Mr. Swenson said yes, and added that they coat the eggs at no charge.

He said, "We go out every day of the year but the most important time for egg oiling is now, from May to June." They chase the geese with Border Collies until June, when the birds molt, and can't fly, until August when their feathers are grown back. The teams continue to work during June and July, not with actively chasing the geese but by actively assessing every site. They look for injured animals, check for more nesting places to monitor, and keep account of what is going on and where the geese are gravitating toward.

The town itself covers a large area and has about 20 or more sites of its own that they visit.

As for the cost to the village, Mr. Swenson said they would renegotiate the figure next year. "It is a learning experience for both of us," he said. The teams currently oversee 78 sites a day. If needed he said they could expand the teams. Partners in the town's GeesePeace program include: the Village of Massapequa Park; Nassau County; (North Hempstead and Hempstead have recently started their own progams); and the CLK Hoolihan-Parnes industrial site in Woodbury; as well as town school districts, including: Bethpage, Syosset, Jericho, Plainview-Old Bethpage, Massapequa, Locust Valley and Plainedge.

Mr. Swenson explained the heart of the problem. He said, 100 years ago hunters kept geese - with their wings clipped so they couldn't fly - and used them as live decoys to attract migratory Canada geese as they returned to Long Island.

As they flew north for the summer, the birds spotted the domesticated geese swimming in the water and came down to the delight of the hunters. Mr. Swenson said in 1920 the Canada geese were almost extinct. As a result the government prohibited the use of live decoys. In reaction to that law, the hunter's flocks were released. "Those geese never knew how to fly or migrate and were just let loose. Now there are many generations of geese who are used to this area and don't migrate. Ten geese, over an eight-year period, can produce 100 geese," he said.

The geese have found Long Island a perfect place to live. It has school playing fields, golf courses, lawns, and ponds and sumps with water nearby on which to live.

Mr. Swenson explained the geese like short grass on open fields and lawns - near water to which they can go to, to escape predators.

In 2004, the Town of Oyster Bay put in a pilot project in Massapequa using the Village of Massapequa Park, the Massapequa school district. They use a double-pronged program based on GeesePeace of Reston, VA, which offers a humane approach. "It satisfied everyone since it doesn't kill the geese or harm them."

He explained the method adding that this is the time to identify the nests and coat the eggs with corn oil. They first test them to see if they are developing embryos, in which case they return them to the nest. (They put the egg into a bucket of water. If it floats, that means it has an air sack and it contains a developing embryo.)

At this time of year, he said, you see two geese traveling together as they pair up for breeding. Mr. Swenson said the town program has oiled 5,000 eggs and therefore there are 5,000 less geese here.

The town has three teams working on its GeesePeace program. They each have a truck, a border collie and two men. The geese are afraid of the border Collies, who have been trained not to harm them, but only harass them. They only go after Canada geese.

The concept is to harass the geese and make them go elsewhere. They go after the geese at random times during the day on land and water. "The dogs ride in inflatable boats and chase the birds on the water, too. It's like musical chairs. The geese learn and when they see our vehicle coming they leave. One of our trucks was in Hempstead and the geese saw the trucks and took off," he said. Mr. Swenson said you have to keep up the efforts and that some studies show that the geese are learning to migrate as a result of being chased.

"They are keeping off the school fields and the golf courses and that helps with the water quality issues. They eat and excrete - fast. That is because they have to be able to fly fast. That means coliform bacteria can get into the water stream," he said.

The geese can easily fly 10 miles, he said, long enough to get to Connecticut. "It's easy for them to find a better place to live."

To be effective the GeesePeace program needs to be done in lots of places, and it is, including Nassau County, the Town of North Hempstead and in New Jersey and New England. "More programs means it is more effective," said Mr. Swenson.

He said the town's 2004 program was so successful GeesePeace asked the town to take over the program, which they did in 2005, starting with the Locust Valley School District and in 2006, almost all of the school districts had signed on, as did parks in Woodbury.

The town now has 10 partners in GeesePeace. The groups meet at the beginning of the year and set a budget and share the costs to make it affordable. The town, being the biggest entity, pays the biggest percentage, he said. The staff includes three dogs, six employees and two part-timers. He said the group works with walkie-talkies and they have a GPS system, so when called about a geese spotting, they can see who is closest to the area.

A team of two go out with a golf umbrella and open it up as they approach the nest. The geese back off but they still have to watch the male for aggression. They test the eggs, oil them if not developing and put the eggs back in the nest. If they were to destroy the eggs, the ducks would just lay more eggs. They lay between three to seven eggs at a time. The team also sends information about the nest and number of eggs to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"The birds are very smart and dedicated to future generations," said Mr. Swenson.

This is the first time the town will contract with a village although they have helped residents in Muttontown when called for help with geese problems.

Mr. Swenson said they need people to give them permission to chase the geese on their property - without the liability of being sued. He included forms in the packets he gave to the village. He said the DEC has given permission to enter their sumps and although Nassau County has its own program, they will give them permission if needed.

Mr. Swenson added, "Also, people shouldn't feed the geese."

At the meeting Mayor Julianne Beckerman asked representatives of the Muttontown civic groups to comment on the program. The village had notified them of the meeting and many came.

Interestingly, a Muttontown horseman said he has seen aggressive geese in the Muttontown Preserve. He said they stand on the trails flapping their wings menacingly. Mr. Swenson said, "Flapping their wings is what they do, but they have no teeth to defend themselves, but will butt someone with their head."

One of the civic association representatives, Peter Schreiber of Pond's Edge said his area pays $1,100 a month for three months of the year to keep the geese away. "They come with dogs three times a day and we are happy with the service. We have a big pond and there are no geese. They are harassed, and there are no eggs in the nearby catch basin. The civic association has a budget. We see them fly over but there is no nesting. Ten years ago it was a serious problem. The homeowners couldn't walk outside their homes."

The residents were aware that everyone has to work on the issue quickly because this is the season when the eggs are laid. Residents spoke up and said they would help get the word out.