Parker Dam State Park uses coyote decoys for geese control and beach safety

CLEARFIELD COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — Officials at Parker Dam State Park say they are taking safety measures as they prepare for the warmer weather, so if you come to the beach area over the next several weeks, you may seem some unfamiliar faces.

Jeremiah Irvin works as the environmental interpretive technician at Parker Dam State Park and says that they are using coyote decoys to try and steer Canadian geese away from settling down in the park. He says they are going through spring migration, and the coyotes help to scare them away, if used properly.

Irvin says that he has a background in wildlife biology, and got this idea from a former colleague who saw it work in the past.

“To get them to work you do need to move them around because geese will figure out really quick that they aren’t a live predator," said Irvin.

He says not only are the geese messy, they increase the bacterial counts in their water to an unsafe level which would lead to them limiting access to the lake. Irvin says that in years past, they would wait until the geese were already present before taking action.

“This is just so we don’t have to wait until an issue occurs, because if we do fail the bacterial count, it could be a week or two weeks before we get the geese to leave and the bacterial count to go back down to a safe enough point for us to reopen our beach," said Irvin.

Officials say they do not plan on keeping these up throughout the summer, but will bring them back out if a problem arises.