2023 Round-Up

Phantom Lakes Management district residents voted in-favor during the 9/28/2022 annual meeting to have an round-up, with assistance from the USDA, for the 2023 season.

PLMD has provided the private property permissions form at the link below and encourages residents to submit it. Round-up is a one time (potentially once annually, if approved annually) event. Allowing access to your property allows representatives to heard geese (often times from land to water). Disruption should be minimal and likely only a few minutes per year.

Permission form allowing USDA-Wildlife Services access to private property

• Canadian Geese provide some aesthetic and recreational value but also contribute to nuisance and human health and safety concerns.
• Did you know? Each goose leaves behind a pound of feces per day which results in fouled property, sanitary concerns, increased algae blooms, and higher E. coli levels at beaches.
• To mitigate this issue, the DNR promotes strict usage of USDA Wildlife Services, to conduct “round-ups” of geese. USDA Wildlife Services has an endorsed, sustainable method of capturing these geese and donating them ALL as animal food, at a current fee of $3,500. This cost has been budgeted within the (approved) 2023 PLMD budget.
• Note: Round-ups are only permitted between mid June and early July. Geese are captured by herding onto land, surrounding with netted panels, and transferring them into ventilated poultry crates on a trailer. Volunteers in boats may be needed to persuade the animals to land.
• DNR does not allow the birds to relocate; all birds are humanely euthanized and donated as either human or animal food.
• Goose round-ups generally remove the primary breeding birds from a site thereby maintaining lower populations for several years following a round-up.