TURLOCK, Calif. — Fake alligator heads didn't work. Nor did strings tied around the lakes. Even remote-controlled boats failed to intimidate.
So Turlock Golf & Country Club this week literally called in the big guns to deal with its longtime problem of Canada geese befouling its property: Officials invited hunters to the club during a special week of open season.
"They're beautiful birds when you have a handful of them," country club general manager Michael Blevins said Monday. "But we've got 400 or 500 of them, and it can be a health hazard."
The club left notices for people who live nearby its rural Merced County location. Rather than ease their minds when they heard gunfire ring out, the notices left some neighbors incensed.
Kym Lamarre called the concept "sheer idiocy." In an e-mail, she said the threat of a health hazard is "a smokescreen for getting rid of the inconvenience of the mess the goose droppings bring to the greens."
She also complained that the club hadn't tried any less lethal measures.
But that's not true, Blevins said. Over the last 10 years or so, the club has tried fake predators and the boats to scare off the geese, and the string to make it less comfortable for them to get into the lakes. Nothing worked.
"They come here, they have easy access to food, and they've found a nice climate that doesn't get too extreme," Blevins said.
The geese hit nearby farmland for dinner, then come to the club to bathe in the lake and use the fairways and greens as a restroom. "They end up having goslings here and generations of them are staying."
So the club's board of directors opted to ask hunters for help.
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