Save the geese of Silver Lake

To:  City Administration of Rochester, Minnesota

Silver Lake has the world's largest concentration of wintering Canada geese. The city administration has promoted the feeding of the geese as a tourist attraction for decades. Due to hunting outside city limits, fishing at Silver Lake, and open water at the lake year-round, there are large numbers of crippled and wounded geese at the lake. They have been able to survive thanks to the kindness of Rochester residents and visitors.

Beginning April 1, 2007, the city administration is planning to create a 30-foot wide buffer zone around the shoreline using native grasses and plants. They will also place signs discouraging the feeding of geese. These new policies will be detrimental to the crippled flock as they are unable to fly over the buffer zone to feed. The net result is that these geese will suffer greatly and starve to death.

We oppose the city administration of Rochester, Minnesota’s $550,000 taxpayer supported Silver Lake Buffer Project since this will eventually result in the elimination of all geese from Silver Lake. In particular, this project will cause great suffering for the significant number of crippled and wounded geese that make their home year-round at the lake.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

The Save the geese of Silver Lake Petition to City Administration of Rochester, Minnesota was created by Friends of Canada Geese and written by Margaret Chin Choo Love (honk@lovecanadageese.com).  This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.

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