Alpena residents and visitors will see a controlled Canada goose hunt at the Alpena County Fairgrounds on Sept. 17, 24 and 30 after the Alpena Municipal Council voted 3-2 to authorize the effort Tuesday. The decision followed weeks of debate over widespread goose droppings and the city’s limited success with nonlethal controls this year.
Mayor Cindy Johnson and council members Danny Mitchell and Kevin Currier voted in favor. Bridget Hollinshead and Karol Walchak voted against the motion. The council had rejected a similar request during its previous meeting.
The originally proposed Sept. 10 hunt was removed from the schedule because the Department of Public Works said it would not have enough time to prepare. Although the dates fall during Michigan’s regular goose season, hunting inside Alpena city limits requires council approval.
Flooding disrupted the city’s preferred control method
City Manager Rachel Smolinski told council members that the hunt remains one of the city’s most cost-effective tools for addressing the goose problem. She said April flooding prevented a successful egg-oiling program this spring.
Under the program, which is permitted through the USDA APHIS Wildlife Services program, vegetable oil is applied to goose eggs so they do not hatch. Smolinski described egg oiling as “extremely effective each year” and said geese typically do not renest in the same location. Some nests require access by boat, adding another challenge.
“I feel like the goose hunt is an approach that is one of the most cost effective that we have,” Smolinski said. “Obviously the extenuating circumstances here with the April flooding did not allow us to be successful with our goose egg oiling.”
Officials also discussed purchasing a Tow and Collect 1500 Pro, a towed machine with powered brushes that can collect goose droppings, aeration cores, leaves and other turf debris. Mackinaw City officials reportedly have used a similar machine successfully, but Alpena would need a vehicle capable of towing it.
County and waterfront concerns shaped the vote
Alpena County Administrator Jesse Osmer spoke for the Alpena County Board of Commissioners, which asked the city to reconsider the hunt after the earlier rejection. Osmer said commissioners had heard from constituents who supported the hunt and had seen social-media photographs showing the effects of the geese.
He said storms and flooding had limited alternative measures during the spring, leaving a problem that still required attention. The county, he emphasized, was asking for reconsideration rather than directing the city’s decision.
Bob Kraft, a volunteer at Thunder Bay National Marine Sanctuary who said he was speaking for himself, described the practical effect on visitors. Kraft said he greets cruise-ship visitors and sometimes escorts them by golf cart so they do not have to walk as far. He also said he regularly shovels droppings from the route between the sanctuary and the ramp to the Lady Michigan.
“It’s unbelievably disgusting and it’s a shame that our guests have to experience that,” Kraft said. “There are times I must drive the golf cart 20 to 30 yards off the path because it’s full of goose droppings. It’s not a good presentation for our guests from around the country and the world.”
The source article reports that a single Canada goose can produce about one to two pounds of droppings daily, citing wildlife and municipal reports. It says concentrations of geese have affected parks, ball fields, parking lots, the bi-path and waterfront areas used by tourists.
Questions remain about the hunt’s effectiveness
Don Gilmet, a member of the Goose Management Committee who has organized the city’s hunts for years, urged the council to remove as many geese as possible. He said harassment during the scheduled hunts could cause some birds to leave and not return.
“Get rid of as many as you can because they are still going to be here,” Gilmet said. “A lot of them will leave and not come back just because they are going to get harassed for six or seven hours, three times this month.”
The council did not establish a target number of geese to remove. Critics of earlier hunts have argued that harvest totals alone do not show whether a hunt reduced the local goose population or the amount of droppings.
The 2024 hunt resulted in 41 geese harvested, compared with 118 in 2023. There was no authorized hunt in 2025, and last year’s council vote was 4-1 against a hunt, with Mitchell the only member voting yes. Mitchell also was the only yes vote during the previous month’s consideration.
Johnson said she opposed last year’s hunt and contacted state Rep. Cam Cavitt after the prior meeting about the goose problem and spring conditions. She said the state Department of Natural Resources’ dates do not work well in northern Lower Michigan and asked for different dates next year.
“I don’t take this lightly, I’m not for the hunt but I am out in the community, and we all see the pictures,” Johnson said. “We have an issue, the weather was not kind to us this year for egg collecting, which I believe is the most humane route. In order to deal with the issue, I believe we need to authorize a hunt this year and continue to work on solutions that work for all of us.”
Johnson said she hoped discussions would continue and that conditions or available solutions would change before next spring.
Currier said the debate reflects two different questions: whether reducing the goose population will reduce droppings and whether the hunts can be shown to solve the sanitation problem. He said he did not believe the hunt answered that basic question, but considered it a tool the city needed to use at this point in the season.
“The problem is we have two different groups thinking about the same thing and trying to talk to each other about it,” Currier said. “We have one with the main goal of decreasing the goose population to eliminate some of the poop, but it’s like throwing spaghetti at the wall. Meanwhile the other side is asking how that correlates with the poop situation.”