As an activist working to protect wild geese, I find disheartening the claims that geese are threatening the wild rice that grows in the St. Louis River and the consequent plan in Duluth to kill 300 geese. The Duluth City Council approved a long-debated goose-management plan in September, which authorizes the killing of more than 300 geese annually until the rice growth is sustainable but leaves out other more effective strategies for restoring wild rice.
There are certainly solutions where both wild rice and geese are protected, and I implore the city of Duluth and surrounding communities to explore those options more thoroughly.
Rice is so central to Ojibwe culture and rightly deserves time to re-establish in the St. Louis River. I hold a deep respect for the tradition and for the rice itself, whose nutty taste I can still conjure from the Northland College cafeteria in Ashland, where almost a quarter of the food is sourced locally.
What the city of Duluth has failed to address, though, are the other human-caused threats to the sustainability of rice like water-quality issues. Years of poorly managed industrial activities along the St. Louis River resulted in a sulfate pollution problem that has greatly contributed to the wild-rice devastation. Wild rice has also been devastated by the effects of climate change, the influence of non-native seed varieties, and habitat destruction.
Geese can be managed non-lethally until the rice reaches a more sustainable level through landscape modification, netting, and hazing efforts. Organizations like the National Goose Protection Coalition provide resources to communities on how to address goose conflicts without harming these animals.
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There is a way to avoid suffering and needless deaths of hundreds of geese, but I ask the people of Duluth, is there a will?
Katie Nolan
Washington, New Hampshire
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