Atlantic Flyway Resident Population Canada geese (Branta canadensis) are long-lived birds that were established during the mid-1900s. At high densities, resident Canada geese reduce water quality, impair landscape aesthetic, damage crops, and cause safety concerns. Managers need information about survival to more effectively manage these populations via implementation of harvest and cull regulations. We analyzed records for 39,711 Canada geese captured 54,309 times during 1994-2011, of which 5,883 were recovered by the summer of 2012. We used the Burnham model to estimate survival, recapture rate, recovery, and fidelity and identify factors that affect them. Candidate models included combinations of sex, age class, year, hunting season length, bag limit, total harvest, number culled, the North Atlantic Oscillation Index, density, an indicator for urban banded birds, and percent agriculture, natural, rural, and urban land cover at the last known capture location. The best-supported model included effects of age class, year, and whether the individual was banded in an urban or rural locale on survival and effects of year and locale on Seber recovery rate. We used it to construct a hierarchical model to estimate mean survival and Seber recovery rates for urban and rural birds and their variances. Mean survival of after-hatch-year urban Canada geese was 0.724 (95% CI: 0.675-0.772) and that of after-hatch-year rural geese was 0.718 (0.665-0.770). Based on estimates of survival and recovery, mean harvest rate was 3.8% (3.4-4.2%) for after-hatch-year urban geese and 7.8% (6.7-9.0%) for after-hatch-year rural geese. Hatch-year geese in rural areas had lower survival and higher harvest rates than after-hatch-year geese, but the opposite was true in urban areas. Survival generally decreased over the course of the study and harvest increased. Hatch-year males had the lowest fidelity of any group, and afterhatch-year geese of both sexes had fidelity greater than 85%. Knowledge of survival and its relationship with management and environmental factors will allow managers to better predict population responses to harvest and cull and to achieve population goals. Ó 2014 The Wildlife Society.

Atlantic Flyway resident population (AFRP) Canada geese Branta canadensis in New Jersey, USA, have grown dramatically during the last thirty years and are considered as overabundant in many areas. Development of corporate parks and urban areas with manicured lawns and artificial ponds offer ideal nesting habitat for AFRP geese, with limited pressure from hunting or natural predators. As a result, spatial heterogeneity in reproduction must be taken into account in managing the population. We identified the site and landscape spatial scale extents at which land use features influenced nest site selection and nest success. Nest searches were conducted throughout the State during 2009-2010, and 309 nests were monitored through hatch to determine their fates. We ran a spatial correlation analysis of land use composition to identify spatial scale extents at which geese most considerably respond to their environment for nest site selection and nest success. All significant spatial scale extents were at or below 2.25 km for the five classified land use types. We emphasize that habitat-goose associations in densely urban areas were strongest at extents 1 km, while rural and natural areas were strongest at extents 1 km. Geese responded to human-dominated land uses at a smaller spatial scale extent than land uses with low human density. The strength of all nest-land use univariate relationships was low; however, our primary objective was to identify the scales extent at which geese associate with land use, rather than the intensity. We encourage managers to consider these scale-dependent associations in identifying important habitat variables in multivariate models; and if population control of AFRP Canada geese is of primary interest, then focusing on local habitat management will most likely have the largest influence in managing this population.

Highly abundant resident Canada geese (Branta canadensis) cause property damage throughout their range. Effective reduction and management of these populations requires knowledge of their population dynamics and responses to management actions. We used data from New Jersey, USA, and other resident Canada goose populations to produce stage-structured matrix models for resident Canada geese from both urban and rural landscapes. We ran stochastic simulations to assess 3 management activities for Atlantic Flyway Resident Population Canada geese: harvest, nest treatment, and cull. Unrealistic harvest rates, in excess of 10% for urban geese, would be needed to reduce the urban population to target levels within 10 years in the absence of other management activities. Nest treatment to prevent hatching is less controversial than culling adults, but as many as 62% of eggs in urban areas would need to be treated annually to sufficiently reduce the mean stochastic population growth rate. Cull would be the most effective way to achieve the population goal, but current cull rates are insufficient to reduce the urban population. Although reduction of urban geese was a challenge, current management activities in rural populations appeared to be sufficient to reduce populations. We also provide a simple spreadsheet tool for managers who want to explore management options for other resident Canada goose populations by inserting relevant vital rate estimates for their populations and manipulating management activities. Ó 2016 The Wildlife Society.

Tidal freshwater marshes of the Maurice River, New Jersey, USA, have been long renowned for robust stands of wild rice (Zizania aquatica). During the 1990s, these marshes experienced an apparent decline in wild rice. During 2000-2002, I used paired fenced exclosures and open control plots to measure herbivory by the Atlantic Flyway Resident Population of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) on wild rice and response of rice to an integrated damage management program (IDMP). The IDMP consisted of rendering goose nests unhatchable, shooting, and culling molting geese. The IDMP reduced the number of goslings by 60% during the first year and essentially eliminated recruitment during the second year. Prior to the IDMP, grazing by geese reduced the density of rice by 78% and the height of plants surviving grazing by 17%. With implementation of an IDMP, rice density between exclosures and control plots did not differ. Wetland managers should consider the grazing impacts that resident population Canada geese can incur on native plant communities and develop a plan for mitigating that damage. Ó 2014 The Wildlife Society.

Overpopulation of Canada goose (Branta canadensis) that make up the Atlantic Flyway Resident Population (AFRP) in New Jersey led to the implementation of a management program that includes hunter harvest, culling programs, and efforts to reduce recruitment through nest destruction. We investigated clutch size, hatchability, and nest survival of Canada goose nests in the AFRP in New Jersey during 1985–1989, 1995–1997, and 2009–2010, and identified ecological, temporal, and spatial variables associated with nest survival to better understand the factors influencing population growth. Mean (±SE) clutch size was 4.86 eggs (±0.04), and mean hatchability of all eggs was 0.61 ± 0.04 across the study. Mean hatchability in 2009–2010 was significantly lower than in the 1980s and 1990s, whereas we did not detect any significant differences in mean clutch size across the decades. Nest survival decreased across the decades, with survival probabilities ranging from 0.68 ± 0.03 in 1988 to 0.45 ± 0.02 in 2010, likely related to reproductive control programs. Nest survival was influenced by date within the nesting season, decade, precipitation, and extreme high temperature. Further, nest survival was associated with commercial‐industrial, agricultural, and urban residential land use at a site level (0.25 km), and natural and urban residential land use at a landscape level (2.25 km and 0.75 km, respectively). Commercial land use (e.g., corporate parks and golf courses) offers favorable Canada goose nesting habitat at the site level, with manicured lawns, man‐made ponds, and decreased predator habitat (e.g., dense tree, shrub cover). We recommend targeting population management efforts in commercial, industrial, and urban residential areas these land uses were associated with increased nest survival. © 2016 The Wildlife Society.