Vern Jackson, the security guard at City Hall, checks with a hesitant visitor on Monday afternoon.
Monday was the first day in two weeks you didn’t need an appointment to do business at Albany City Hall. I doubt that’s the reason a Canada goose decided to stake out the entrance, but there it was.
I saw the handsome bird when I came downstairs from talking with city staff members on the second floor. Because of Covid and staff shortages, since Jan. 18 the offices had been closed except by appointment. But that protocol ended Monday.
The plaza outside City Hall is not, needless to say, the usual habitat for Canada geese. Usually we see them in big flocks overhead, hundreds of feet in the sky, on their way someplace else and filling the air with their cries. Or we spot them on the valley’s fields, settling in for the night.
Canada geese used to be a problem for mid-valley farmers in the 1980s and ’90s. As they wintered in Oregon by the tens of thousands, the birds would scour the fields, snapping up tender shoots of winter wheat or other crops.
Taking a stab into the digital archives on newspapers.com, I came across a story I had written in 1985. It was about a bill introduced by Rep. Liz VanLeeuwen, R-Halsey, allowing farmers to apply to the Fish and Wildlife Commission for compensation for crop damage by geese and other wildlife. (Two weeks later the paper reported the bill was likely to die in committee.)
We haven’t heard anything lately about geese damaging our farm economy. Maybe the problem has gone away.
In any case, the City Hall goose had nothing to do with it. Vern Jackson, the security man on duty, told me the goose had been out there most of the day, having wandered over from the direction of Ferry Street in the morning. Somebody scattered some feed on the ground and supplied a bowl of water.
As of Monday night, I don’t know what happened to the goose. It would be nice to think that somehow it got reunited with the flock to which it belonged. (hh)
It’s a certainty. The science is settled.
Do not feed the geese. It causes health problems.
An ordinance with a stiff fine is needed. Just think of the potential for additional city revenue.
Still problem in some areas
Actually they “winter” at Grand Prairie and Periwinkle lakes where they are accustomed to people. Since they tend to move as a flock they are usually at one lake or the other at any one time. So the city hall goose really isn’t that far off course.
Other winter visitors include one lonely grebe that hangs out in the creek between Grand Prairie road and the Periwinkle footbridge and a pair of mergansers usually found in the same area.
And of course a couple hundred American wigeons. Those are the ducks that chirp instead of quack…
Much of the reason we no longer see geese, in my opinion, is that many fields they used to feed in have changed to other crops or be developed. Sadly the annexation of N. Albany resulted in the loss of at least one field that had been a feeding spot for geese for many years.
We have seen flocks flying toward the area, circle once or twice then leave. Apparently the “radar” of some in these flocks still registers that area as a prime feeding spot.
SAD
Hasso writes… “a bill introduced by Rep. Liz VanLeeuwen, R-Halsey, allowing farmers compensation for crop damage by geese … We haven’t heard anything lately about geese damaging our farm economy. Maybe the problem has gone away.”
Per Hasso’s earlier reportage, combined with his current assessment points directly to former Rep. VanLeeuwen’s habit of extending the government’s long arm when doing so suited her political ends.
I understand that VanLeeuwen was beloved during her time in office, but few outside the confines of the Capitol building witnessed VanLeeuwen’s actions in that august body directly. I did. I spent the 1981 Oregon Legislative session (Van Leeuwen’s first) in the television control room in the Capitol building of then OEPBS, providing comprehensive television and radio coverage of Legislative action to the entire state.
Nearly everyday, Van Leeuwen would stand and be recognized by Speaker Hardy Meyers. VanLeeuwen’s standard line, for the cameras, was always the same.
In both House Floor sessions and Committee Hearings, Van Leeuwen’s typical attack whenever cameras were present centered around: 1 criticism of government overreach,
2. of government spending, 3. of government taxation, 4. of excessive government interference in the private sector and of excessive government support for programs she deemed unnecessary.
Yet, in this Goose Patrol piece by Hasso we read that VanLeeuwen offered-up a bill that would pay farmers for “crop damage by geese and other wildlife.” This direct-to-farmer cash payments scheme apparently did not fall under VanLeeuwen’s definition of government overreach or wasteful government programs.
The point? The broad-based deification of VanLeeuwen by her fan base should recognize that even VanLeeuwen was not above government overreach if it served her political ends. Do as I say…Not as I do.
You can make the argument that the farmers of that era deserved compensation but then you need to carefully think through those times when you want to scream “government overreach.” On the other hand, it may be as Hasso writes: “Maybe the problem has gone away.”
Well, Liz had introduced that bill at the request of the Farm Bureau. As for government overreach, it has only gotten more intensive in the last 30-plus years.
You are correct Hasso. That said, the Oregon Farm Bureau, along with the National Farm Bureau organization, lobby VERY hard for crop subsidies, farm loan programs that are heavily subsidized and several other programs designed to help the farming community. I happen to believe that many of these subsidies are good things that help keep the American food supply affordable and good for consumers. My only point was that the Political Right regularly condemns government subsidies for several programs that serve the non-farm community while simultaneously supporting these farm subsidies. It’s the Right’s hypocrisy that is galling…not the programs
The prejudice in your comments is mind boggling. Nobody rips off the public more than liberal Democrats. Take a look at Biden’s infrastructure bill for a prime example of my statement.
Mr. Hartman’s comment is well taken.
“Well, Liz had introduced that bill at the request of the Farm Bureau.”
And she didn’t say no, as she could have.
While we are on the subject of subsidies to farmers did you know that tobacco is still subsidized by the Federal Government?
Seems to me it is a bit foolish to for the government to subsidize crops that have been proven to be hazardous to your health.
It’s not much something like 60 million dollars a year according to one source.
Great photo Hasso. Maybe he is just asking this freeloading, undocumented Canadian for it’s papers.
And the New York Times today published this video on Agriculture lobbying and Climate Change
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/01/opinion/climate-sustainability-agriculture-lobby.html?searchResultPosition=2
Q: Why was the goose refused entry to City Hall?
A: It was suspected of fowl play.
Obviously an anti-masker.