Good For The Goose, Good For The Gander

You can tell that spring is here and love is in the air when you see the return of mated pairs of Canada geese to the Semiahmoo peninsula.  Maybe it's because they want to put "White Rock" on their mailing address, but plenty of Canada geese like hanging out in White Rock, spending time in parks, eating people's lawns, pooping everywhere and also nesting on rooftops.  When the goslings are born, the epicenter of the activity always seems to be Southmere Village Park at 16 Ave. and 148 St., or North Bluff Rd. and Oxford St. if on the beach side of the Surrey/White Rock border.  In case you were wondering, Canada geese are monogamous, mate for life and return to the same nesting site every year with lifespans of 10-25 years.  That might explain why their numbers seem to grow here every year.

Unfortunately being a goose in White Rock sometimes means that your goose is cooked and many of these rather large birds get hit by cars when meandering around the neighbourhood.  There have already been three cases this year with geese getting hit on the roads of White Rock and South Surrey.  One was thought to have been accidental, another was reported as targeting these birds on purpose and the last one involved a hit and run by someone on a bicycle (pretty sure that's a hit and pedal).  By my count that is five dead geese already and these were all adults.  Gestation for Canada geese is 25-30 days with 5-6 eggs laid in a nest that usually hatch late April to early May.  This means it won't be long until the eggs hatch and quickly grow into fluffy goslings almost the size of their parents.  

Then the fun really starts with large gaggles of geese including the parents that will be molting and flightless at that time begin taking their daily strolls across 16 Ave./North Bluff Rd. (let's call it 16/NB).  Motorists who live here in the Semiahmoo peninsula are quite used to this yearly wildlife spectacle and will slow down in this area, stop for the geese, and often get out of their vehicles to help other people shoo the birds off the road.  This gets dangerous when you have drivers from out of the area who are not used to seeing geese being herded across 16/NB and do not realize that there are birds and people behind the cars stopped in the street that they are about to pass, usually at high speed.  If ever there was a proverbial accident waiting to happen this is the spot, where plenty of geese have already been slaughtered over the years.

I started expressing my concern about this situation that is a danger to both the geese and people, to the cities of both White Rock and Surrey five years ago.  Dealing with any form of government usually takes persistence and patience and you cannot expect miracles overnight even when you present facts, knowledge, photographs and solutions.  I must give White Rock credit for they were the first to post rectangular "Wildlife Area" signs on North Bluff four years ago showing a goose and goslings that were a white background with green writing.  Surrey, when faced with the same information, chose to do nothing for their side of 16 Ave.  A year later somebody in the community (not me) put up three "Goose Xing" signs along 16 Ave. that were very official looking yellow diamond shapes with a goose and gosling.  It took Surrey a while to realize these were not official signs and they tore them down.

Two years ago White Rock decided that their "Wildlife Area" sign was hard to see after a little bird told them that (in an email, not a tweet) and replaced it with a yellow and black diamond showing a goose and gosling.   Knowing this, I contacted Surrey about when they were going to put up signs on their side of 16 Ave. and they told me they could only put up signs for deer, elk or moose.  If you think that is stupid or that I'm lying, yes it is and no I'm not.  Realizing I was dealing with incompetence and ineptitude, I decided to follow the lead of the resident who had previously posted the three goose crossing signs and I had one made (thanks Robert at Signman Signs) and put it up myself near Southmere Village.  It was there for almost a month, but just as before Surrey crews came by, took it down and never put up one of their own to match the sign on the White Rock side of the street.

I'm now wondering what it will take for Surrey to follow White Rock's lead and put up a waterfowl crossing sign on their side of 16/NB?  What is really annoying is that I have sent Surrey Engineering pictures of waterfowl crossing signs in Delta, Langley, Abbotsford and Chilliwack.  The Chilliwack ones of Vedder Road are left up all year and in the spring they attach fluorescent orange flags to them when the ducks or geese have their young.  Meanwhile, back in Surrey, they continue to do nothing while ignoring the dangers it poses on this major roadway.  It might be time to visit all of their Welcome to Surrey signs and change the city motto from "the future lives here" to "your goose is cooked here."  I did this years ago with my "the beaver dies here" campaign after it was revealed that Surrey was drowning beavers with Conibear leghold traps in Surrey parks, on Beaver Dam Hill of all places.  I think Dianne Watts is still pissed with me for that little stunt but they stopped killing beavers immediately after that.

The other option is to rent out the bus stop bench advertisement near Southmere Village park and put on it a sign exactly the same as what White Rock has on their side of the road.  I'm sure this would make for a wonderful story in media outlets across Canada and beyond so I'm going to look into it tomorrow.  A resident of Surrey should not have to resort to these tactics just to get Surrey to do what White Rock did years ago on the other side of the road.  It is almost as if when they are hiring at the Surrey Engineering Department that they only pick candidates with no common sense.  I will state here publicly that if a bunch of geese get run over by a vehicle on the Surrey side of 16/NB, I will pick up their carcasses myself and deliver them personally to Surrey City Hall with TV cameras rolling.  Then, and only then, might they listen to reason, do the right thing and put up geese crossing signs on 16/NB like their smart neighbours did four years ago.

If you want to help light a fire under the butts of the Surrey Engineering Dept. to finally put up some goose crossing signs on 16 Ave., please feel free to send your comments with a link for this TNT to the following Surrey contacts.  

engineering@surrey.ca 

courtney.cueto@surrey.ca

citymanager@surrey.ca 

mayor@surrey.ca

Councillors email addresses are available at https://www.surrey.ca/city-government/mayor-council

The White Rock Sun address is https://www.whiterocksun.com/

Naturally yours,

Don PItcairn

I wish to acknowledge we live, work and play on the traditional lands of the Semiahmoo People