Up & Away

Before the holidays I made a trip over to Foothills Golf Course to visit the Superintendent about our irrigation ditch.

The first thing I noticed was the lack of geese present on the course. I spoke with him more about how they were managing their geese problem. It took a number of years to be effective, but he couldn't be happier with their solution.

To be honest I have been skeptical about it for quite sometime, but I reached my tipping point over Christmas and figured it was worth a shot to see if it would be a good fit at Pinehurst.

One benefit to chasing geese at a property such as Foothills vs. Pinehurst is the layout. Foothills is wide open and you can cross the course in a couple of minutes. There are a lot of sight lines and easy to navigate. Pinehurst is anything but easy to navigate. With all of the homes and streets that cut through the property, it takes a lot of time to cover.

Shortly after the New Year I had Tim (owner of Up & Away Goose Control) over to check out the property and discuss his plan of attack. I learned two things about his company. First he is committed about keeping geese off the property. He visits the club numerous times throughout the day, 7 days per week. His goal is to train the geese to go somewhere else as they are not welcome at Pinehurst.

Second, many of the geese he chases from Foothills recognize his car and dogs. At first sight, a large percentage of the birds would scatter immediately. It was enjoyable to watch.

Tim not only has an army of border collies, he also uses the Goosinator, green lasers at dusk and even some bird bangers if necessary to cover the property.

So far so good. I have my skepticism about long term effects, but as of now I am very pleased. I do think that much of the success can be related to the recent success at Foothills and their close proximity to Pinehurst. Canada Geese do a tremendous job of adapting to their environment. We can only hope their adapting includes not landing at Pinehurst. The amount of clean up has gone way down over the past 10 days and there are no new holes on any greens or tees.

It will be difficult to rid all of the birds. We may still have a small percentage of them that find a spot to settle for the night, but we'll keep working to make those areas become few and far between. So if you see this pictured Toyota Prius driving through the golf course, they are here for good reason.