Stock photo of Canada geese at Paddlewheel Park (photo by Liam Verster / Vernon Matters)

By Liam Verster

Goose Population Management

Goose egg addling underway in the Okanagan

Apr 3, 2025 | 11:14 AM

An organization has begun its work to control the Okanagan’s goose population.

The Okanagan Valley Goose Management Program has started its egg addling work, where crews locate goose nests and shake, oil or puncture the eggs to make them unviable and prevent them from hatching.

Eggs are then returned to the nest, and geese will continue to incubate them until they realize they will not hatch, which is usually too late in the year for them to produce more.

The Okanagan Valley Goose Management Program (OVGMP) stated that this work is an important tool to manage the population of non-migratory Canada geese without harming the birds.

Canada geese were introduced to the Okanagan in the 1960s and ’70s, and Kate Hagmeier, OVGMP’s Program Coordinator, said they “would not be nesting this region naturally, so we know the addling program only affects these introduced species.”

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The OVGMP stated public assistance is key to the egg addling and asked that anyone with information on nest locations or where pairs of geese congregate email coordinator@okanaganagooseplan.com or call 1-877-943-3209.

The OVGMP’s annual report from 2024 said crews addled 1,150 eggs from 278 accessible nests through the program.

Post-addling ground surveys in 2024 also found approximately 11.4 per cent of the local goose population consisted of goslings born that year.

The OVGMP has been operating for the past 18 years and has addled approximately 24,000 eggs over that period. It was estimated that the work resulted in between 12,000 and 18,000 geese not entering the population, not including the other goslings they would have hatched over the years.