Laser beaming beach geese
Laser lights will be used to zap Canada geese in West Kelowna parks next year.
Five movable laser lights will be rotated through parks where droppings from the geese foul beaches and lawns, pressing ongoing clean-up challenges.
The lights are placed low to the ground so the beam hits the geese right in their eyes.
“The laser beam rotates 360 degrees and covers several hundred square feet. Geese feel threatened and find this annoying, moving away from the area,” reads a description of the project in the city’s 2021 capital plan.
Staff experimented with a laser light at Pritchard Park, a popular waterfront beach, in 2020, with good results.
“The contractor hired to pick up feces has reported much less feces in the area where the lasers were installed,” the budget item states.
“Health concerns attributed to feces on the grass were substantially reduced.”
City staff say the solar-powered laser lights are vandal proof. Buying five of the devices will cost the municipality $7,500.
The company that makes the laser lights says on its website that the devices bother the geese but “have no ill effect on them.”
There are other, less dramatic items in the capital plan up for discussion. One of the costliest items is the proposal to spend $2 million to prepare construction drawings and engage a consultant for a new City Hall. The entire project is supposed to cost $18 million, city manager Paul Gipps has said.
The capital plan also proposes $40,000 for new Christmas lights, $12,000 for bear-proof trash cans in city parks, a $75,000 boost to a $125,000 account for new playgrounds at Devon and Last Mountain parks, and $15,000 for security fencing at the firehall in downtown Westbank.
“Over the past few years, the parking and training areas of Fire Hall 31 have been subject to staff vehicle break-ins and homeless people sleeping in amongst the training area,” the capital plan states.
“The health and safety of the firefighters is compromised by the unknown of what they may encounter when exiting the back of the hall to enter their vehicles, take out the garbage, or use the space for training.”