Once the waterfowl realize that you aren’t going to feed them they will survive by foraging on their own.

KOSCIUSKO COUNTY —Have you made a New Year’s resolutions to eat less and be healthier? Well, let’s help our waterfowl do so too! Clear Choices Clean Water just launched its newest public action campaign to help prevent bacteria and algae in our waters – Don’t Feed Waterfowl, Their Poo is Fowl Too!

You might not think feeding the ducks or geese and swans is a big deal, but it is! A single Canada Goose eats three to four pounds of grass and can create as much as two to three pounds of waste per day! Feeding waterfowl attracts a larger than normal population of waterfowl to an area. By attracting just five more geese to an area, potentially 10 to 15 more pounds of waste a day is added to that area.

Excess waste can add nutrients and bacteria to our lakes and streams and lead to summer algal blooms. The poo can also be harmful to humans, as the waste can present a fall hazard because of the slipper surface it can create. Goose poo has also been shown to contain a wide variety of pathogens capable of infecting humans, including several parasites that can cause gastrointestinal problems. Geese and swans can also be aggressive to humans if a nest is nearby.  A population increase can also be detrimental to native plants and wildlife in and around lakes and streams.

While it is cold outside, wild animals are adapted to changing seasons and providing them low nutrition food like bread on irregular schedules does not help them abide by their natural instincts to migrate or find reliable, nutritious food sources.

So what can you do? It’s simple – just visit online and take a pledge to enjoy waterfowl simply by watching and not feeding. Invite friends, family and neighbors to take the pledge too! On the website you can also explore other actions, like planting native plants, picking up your pet waste and targeting your lawn fertilizer, that help our lakes!

The Watershed Foundation (TWF) has an on-going partnership with Clear Choices Clean Water. This project was partially funded by the Kosciusko County REMC EnviroWatts grant.

TWF  was founded in 1997 to protect and improve water quality in the Upper Tippecanoe River Watershed; spanning from Crooked Lake in Whitley County to the Warsaw-Winona area. Over the past 19 years, TWF has worked with farmers and lake residents to implement over 200 water quality improvement projects. In the last three years alone, these efforts have prevented over 556 million pounds of weeds and algae from growing in area lakes and streams.