“It’s way over there,” says the HSU graduate student and California Department of Fish and Game employee, pointing to a barn in the distance. The beeps grow louder as he drives closer, hoping to pinpoint the bird’s location.
Spragens is studying the feeding and movement patterns of Aleutian geese, which fatten up on grass in Humboldt County from January through mid-April before migrating back to their summer breeding grounds in Alaska’s Aleutian Islands. Four days a week, Spragens works as a scientific aid for the California Department of Fish and Game, arriving at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge at dawn to track 18 radio-collared geese as they fly off to feed in the pastures of Loleta, Ferndale and Arcata.
Once numbering in the hundreds, there are now about 100,000 Aleutian geese. The species was removed from the endangered species list in 2001 and is considered a wildlife success story. But not everyone is elated. Some dairy farmers and cattle growers consider the birds a nuisance because they eat grass needed for livestock.
“Some people believe they have gone from an endangered species to a pest,” says HSU professor Matt Johnson, a wildlife habitat ecologist. Johnson works with Spragens on goose research along with Spragens’ graduate advisor, wildlife professor Jeff Black.
Geese are attracted to farm fields because the short, tender shoots of grass are high in protein. “The geese like grass that has been trimmed by cows. It’s the cows that have made this habitat so good for geese,” Johnson says.
Now, researchers are studying ways to move the geese off private pastures and onto public lands. Johnson calls it a “push-pull” strategy. A special hunting season, which began Feb. 23 and ended March 10, was approved for Aleutian geese on private farmlands this year. Hunting kills few geese but the gunshots and commotion temporarily push the birds from farmlands and, wildlife managers hope, onto public lands. Spragens’ radio-tracking study, which is being conducted by the state Department of Fish and Game, will help determine the effectiveness of this strategy.
Meantime, another HSU graduate student is researching methods to pull the birds into the national wildlife refuge to feed. Dominic Bachman, who is working with Johnson and Black, fertilized plots of grass and planted clover in parts of the refuge to see if this would lure more geese. Indeed, the geese ate the clover and flocked to the fertilized plots of high-protein grass.
“We don’t advocate spreading fertilizer over all public lands, but Dominic’s work shows that the birds respond to the increased protein. Now we need to figure out how we can make the grasses in the public lands more desirable,” Johnson says.
The work is part of a long tradition of Aleutian goose research at HSU, which some credit with helping to return the species from the brink of extinction. In addition to Johnson and Black, HSU professor of rangeland resources Ken Fulgham is also doing Aleutian goose research. “HSU has had more to do with the recovery of Aleutian geese than any other university,” says Eric Nelson, manager of the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
The late professor Paul Springer is credited with starting the Aleutian goose research effort at HSU in the mid-1970s, when just spotting one of the rare birds was a thrill. The chance to work with the then-endangered Aleutian geese helped launch prestigious careers in wildlife management for some of Springer’s students.
HSU alum Dennis Woolington is the supervisory biologist in California’s San Luis National Wildlife Refuge. Dan Yparraguirre is waterfowl coordinator for the California Department of Fish and Game. Nelson oversees the largest refuge for Aleutian geese at the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge.
Back in the Arcata Bottoms, Spragens listens as the beeps from his radio receiver grow louder as he nears the radio-collared goose. He stops his truck alongside Mad River Road near a flock of geese grazing amidst cattle. “The signal is real strong. The goose is in that group right there.”
Spragens uses the radio receiver, a global positioning satellite (or GPS) device and a compass to pinpoint the location of the goose, No. 026, and he logs its coordinates on a chart. The day before, Spragens located this bird in a pasture several miles away. Precisely how geese choose their feeding locations remains a mystery, but Spragens hopes his thesis research will help provide some answers.
“Wildlife management is like a puzzle. It’s a fun challenge,” says Spragens, who grew up hunting waterfowl. He came to HSU because of the school’s reputation for turning out skilled wildlife managers, and he hopes to land a job in a state or federal wildlife agency upon completing his master’s degree. “The outdoors,” he says, pointing out the windows to fields of geese and cattle, “is a nice office.”
Then he fires up the truck and heads down the road in search of goose No. 196, whose collar beeps faintly in the distance.
_Want to see Aleutian geese?_
The Aleutian Goose Festival (March 28-31 in Crescent City) offers birders the chance to see birds as they take off at dawn from their roost on Castle Rock.
Or visit the Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge at dawn to witness the massive fly-offs every morning, when the birds head to farm fields to feed.