FAIRHOPE, Alabama - Mary Lou Simms’s recent op-ed piece (“Geese round-ups more about profit than poop”) asked why some geese should have been removed from Fairhope's beach-front park. As a grandfather of five little children, and having spent a great deal of time doing volunteer work in that park, I offer the following answer.

Ms. Simms suggested that since geese preferred defecating on land, their contribution to water pollution was small. Whether or not that claim is true, it certainly is true that they poop on land – a lot! Although the city regularly harrows the sand, incorporating waterfowl droppings, the beach has been so laden with goose deposits (easily identified as such) that people scarcely could take a step there without landing on some. Children, even toddlers, have picnics and build sand castles in the midst of this. 

The goose population is not intrinsic to the park. There were few if any there in the 1940’s and ‘50’s when I was young, nor were there many to be seen when I returned to Fairhope 20 years ago. Seagulls and ducks contribute plenty of excrement to North Beach Park, but that is no reason to invite large additions from recent arrivals of geese.

Attention to public health and public decency is why the goose population at Fairhope’s premier public park should have been reduced – long ago.

THOMAS H. ELLIS JR.

FAIRHOPE

Editor's Note: On Aug. 10, The Fairhope Courier uncovered  the story that geese had been removed from Fairhope's beach-front park by the USDA on instructions by city staff, which were approved by Mayor Tim Kant. That reporting by The Courier led to a flurry of media coverage, resulting in the confirmation by the USDA that the geese had been kiilled or "euthanized," as many media outlets described the facts.