Tahoe Geese?

Geese blamed for Lake Tahoe's pollution

Wednesday, April 21, 2004 Posted: 10:34 AM EDT (1434 GMT)


RENO, Nevada (AP) -- A group of property owners thinks there might be a new culprit behind Lake Tahoe's declining clarity: Goose droppings.

Members of the Tahoe Lakefront Owners Association want scientists to study whether the bird feces are contributing to pollution that's eroding the lake's clarity at an average rate of more than a foot per year.

The feces contain phosphorus and nitrogen, nutrients that may help fuel the algae growth that combines with sediments to reduce clarity.

"We're just surprised the agencies haven't taken this problem more seriously," said Jan Brisco, executive director of the property owners' group.

Brisco said she's raised the issue with officials from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which is charged with protecting the Sierra Nevada lake famed for its clear, blue waters.

"Everyone just sort of chuckled or laughed as if it were funny," Brisco said. "We think it's far from funny."

Scientists at the University of California's Tahoe Research Group said that while the droppings could affect water quality where the birds are thickest, they're probably not a major source of pollution.

"In a lake like Tahoe, my gut feeling is they are probably going to have very little to do with the decline in clarity we're seeing," said group scientist John Reuter.

edit: What kind of geese? Canuckian?

Sounds reasonable... seriously, thousands of people fertilizing their lawns has no impact.
:rolleyes:

You can't say "eutrophication" without "eew." As in "eew, goose droppings."

[redneck voice]Those damn Canukian geese need to pick up an head back to Canadia! We don't need their kind round here, what with their 1.5 shits to an american goose's 1 all muckin up the lake!!![/rv]

Hmm, are the geese a problem?

How many thousands of years have the geese been stopping by lake Tahoe on their annual migrations?

John was pretty much apoplectic after being contacted about the goose issue.

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Originally posted by Telenater
John was pretty much apoplectic after being contacted about the goose issue.

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How angry is it possible to get over goose shit?

paging lemon boy.

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Originally posted by bad_roo
How angry is it possible to get over goose shit?

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Funny you should ask. Golf course down the street from me had a problem with a neighbor putting arrows through the geese.

The problem got worse when a guy clubbed & killed one with his putter.

So I'd say....about THAT angry.

Arkansas them.

Yes yes yes.

For only a small fee (I think I can undertake it for just about 250,000 Euro for me and 100,000 Euro each for my "assistants" plus California gold passes and expenses) I will undertake year round operations to cleanse this wonderful natural resource of the avian horde.

Board, Foggy, The Rev and I are at your disposal, available immediately.

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Originally posted by lemon boy
Yes yes yes.

For only a small fee (I think I can undertake it for just about 250,000 Euro for me and 100,000 Euro each for my "assistants" plus California gold passes and expenses) I will undertake year round operations to cleanse this wonderful natural resource of the avian horde.

Board, Foggy, The Rev and I are at your disposal, available immediately.

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The Atlantic Flyway's in my backyard. Holler if you need a hand.
:D

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Originally posted by EPSkis
Funny you should ask. Golf course down the street from me had a problem with a neighbor putting arrows through the geese.

The problem got worse when a guy clubbed & killed one with his putter.

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Jeesus. When people at my course got upset about geese, they chipped in and bought the course a border collie to chase the geese away. Works great (and the dog kicks ass).

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Originally posted by EPSkis
The problem got worse when a guy clubbed & killed one with his putter

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So a guy killed an animal because its poop caused him to miss a putt? Jesus Christ.

Canada Geese poop a lot. Big freakin' deal. Disposable diapers fill landfills, too, but so far I haven't heard anyone advocating gassing babies.

Well, the version I heard was that when the group got on the green, the geese decided to "defend their territory". The guy was (apparently) just bein' silly, & started waving his club around & chasing 'em off....Well, he caught one in the head.

I know he got a substantial fine and a few hundred hours of community service.

My buddy killed one about 5 years ago ~ completely by accident & we both felt like $hit. He was just hitting a tee shot & there was a small flock of geese crossing the fairway about 150 yards away. Wrong time to hit a worm-burner. We went to the clubhouse & told them what happened. They had to call the Park Police, who came out, went with us to pick up the goose, and then we had to fill out statements. Why? Because here in MD, it's a $10k fine if you kill one intentionally outside of goose season.

If it were to ever happen again, I'll perform a quick ceremony & stuff it in my golf bag. Then cook it.
:rolleyes:

landfill...golf course same thing.

So, how's the catfish fishin out in Tahoe?

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Originally posted by Big E
So, how's the catfish fishin out in Tahoe?

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Improving.

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Originally posted by Big E
So, how's the catfish fishin out in Tahoe?

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Here's a picture of Greydon from the other day:
http://www.jwz.org/images/1_big.jpg

speaking of Arkansas. what the f' is that sport where they wade in the river and catch catfish with their bare hands??? Noodling???

yep

Me... last July
http://www.okienoodling.com/images/red2.jpg

If you're lucky you catch the Noodlin' Queen
http://www.okienoodling.com/images/queens.jpg

So I was surfing in goose shit out on the lake today ewwwwwwwwww:rolleyes:

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Originally posted by Greydon Clark
If you're lucky you catch the Noodlin' Queen
http://www.okienoodling.com/images/queens.jpg

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I'd noodle the one on the right :D

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Originally posted by The AD
Canada Geese poop a lot. Big freakin' deal. Disposable diapers fill landfills, too, but so far I haven't heard anyone advocating gassing babies.

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That's because, unlike golf courses, nobody cares about landfills.

I don't care about golf courses.

Well I say have at 'em...butI have to admit to not being all that big a fan of geese in the first place.

http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ac/e_3.jpg
In 1995, the Air Force lost an E-3 Sentry AWACS aircraft up in Alaska, from ingesting a goose in one of its engines on takeoff. Losing an airplane is bad, but its worse when it cost $270 million in the first place, they're a national asset that the US really can't afford to lose, and worst of all they lost 22 aircrew along with it. I know people who were stationed up there at the time, they said it was terrible, those who were part of the clean-up crew were finding body parts everywhere. All from one goose. Now, it's an offense punishable by admin. action at that base (Elmendorf, outside of Anchorage) if you see birds around the flight areas and don't phone them in. They'll set off air cannons, or send people or dogs to spook them away, or kill them if necessary.

that and there's a ton of them where I live now, they seem to know that this is a hunting sanctuary so they're safe here. They shit EVERYWHERE. Plus, once again this is an airfield, although we don't have the tough policies about the geese that they do up at Elmo. I think we should.

Geese are obviously part of the axis of evil.

Bummer about the plane. Couldn't it take off on three engines?

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Originally posted by bad_roo
Geese are obviously part of the axis of evil.

Bummer about the plane. Couldn't it take off on three engines?

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I think somebody said that about the Concorde once...

A tyre puncturing the wing tank and subsequently igniting leading to catastrophic hydraulic failure isn't quite the same thing as a bird ingestion.

Anyway, we can always blame the French. ;)

I probably need to look more into it, to see exactly what damage was done (hydraulic or electrical damage as the engines are the generators for those, or did the engine throw any turbine blades, etc), but you'd think it could. Obviously it didn't work out. But it also could depend on exactly when the bird was ingested, like did it produce any offset thrust/yaw when at a critical attitude or airspeed, or did the loss of thrust at such a critical time cause a stall, etc., etc. I'll ask my dad (he'd know), and The AD probably knows as well.

realize that's 1960's engine technology at its finest. Those Pratt & Whitney TF-33s were a huge improvement over the original J57s on the early model 707s (the E-3 is from that airframe), but even then they were pretty anemic, compared to today's standards - 21,000lbs of thrust per engine, roughly. I'd say that engine technology has been advancing at almost the same exponential rate as computer technology for the past 20 years, but once again, that's probably more in the AD's ballpark than mine. He engineers 'em, I fix 'em.

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Originally posted by bad_roo
A tyre puncturing the wing tank and subsequently igniting leading to catastrophic hydraulic failure isn't quite the same thing as a bird ingestion.

Anyway, we can always blame the French. ;)

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I would imagine a 25lb ANYTHING being sucked into a TF-33 turbofan could result in a myriad of problems, the least of which would be actually GETTING a 335,000lb plane off the ground.

Bah ~ We don't need to blame the French for anything. Just give them some time & a spotlight. They'll take care of the rest themselves. ;)


(pssst - t*i*re, Limey) :p