Stop feeding the “ducks” at Riverside Park … and pretty much everywhere

City park board denied duck food dispensers at Riverside Park. 

It’s time to stop feeding the ducks. A simple message to people who visit Riverside Park in La Crosse – or any natural habitat – but a message they don’t often hear.

There’s a whole slew of things wrong with feeding ducks and other waterfowl (list below), and it’s the reason why the city park board turned down the idea of installing duck food dispensers along the riverfront.

The idea was to be part of a fundraiser so La Crosse Parks and Rec. director Steve Carlyon says it will look for other ways to assist the campaign – just not by feeding the ducks. 

“You begin to change their habitat and such, that they begin to eat (at Riverside Park), Carlyon said. “They don’t eat natural foods that are out there. You can alter their migration patterns.”

Riverside Park already has signs posted to discourage visitors from feeding bread to the ducks.

New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation points out the negatives to feeding waterfowl, stating that “artificial feeding is actually harmful to waterfowl.”

Artificial feeding of waterfowl can cause:

• Poor nutrition
• Increased hybridization
• Water pollution
• Delayed migration
• Concentrations at unnatural sites
• Overcrowding
• Spread of disease
• Costly management efforts
• Unnatural behavior
• Cumulative effects
• Devaluation of the species

Nutrition

• It would seem that providing food for ducks and geese would make them healthier. However, this is not the case. Waterfowl at artificial feeding sites are often found to suffer from poor nutrition. In natural settings, waterfowl seek and feed on a variety of nutritious foods such as aquatic plants, natural grains, and invertebrates. Many of the items commonly used to feed waterfowl (bread, corn, popcorn, etc.) are low in protein and are very poor substitutes for natural foods.
• Natural foods are also widely scattered. Ducks and geese are able to find these foods and eat them in relative seclusion. At artificial feeding sites, competition for each scrap or kernel is high. Some ducks and geese (usually the youngest) are unable to compete for handouts.
• Visible symptoms of poor nutrition and advanced stages of starvation are often seen at artificial feeding sites. For example, waterfowl may have drooping wings or may lose their ability to fly.

Disease

• When ducks and geese feed on scattered corn or bread, they eat in the same place where they defecate. Not healthy. In addition, large concentrations of waterfowl would facilitate the spread of disease. Also not healthy. Diseases generally not transmissible in a wild setting find overcrowded and unsanitary conditions very favorable.

Most waterfowl die-offs in the past 10 years have involved artificial feeding:

• A fatal disease, Aspergillus, occurs when food is scattered too liberally. It piles up and becomes moldy.
• In some cases, humans have been affected by disease transmitted by waterfowl. 
• Feeding attracts birds in unnatural numbers, beyond natural food and water supplies, and frequently in numbers beyond what people will tolerate. Over-grazed and badly-eroded lawns, golf courses, and school playing fields are often the result of overcrowding. Grassy areas such as ball fields and golf courses can become unsanitary and unusable.

Delayed Migration

• Feeding alters normal migration patterns of waterfowl by shortening or even eliminating them. Ducks, reluctant to leave in the winter, may not survive sudden cold. If the artificial feeding is stopped in time, ducks and geese can quickly adapt to finding natural foods and will follow their companions south. 

Unnatural Sites

• Artificial feeding often attracts birds to human habitats-parking lots, fast-food restaurants, and retention ponds-where they are more subject to accidental death. Natural cover, which can provide protection from bad weather and predators (even dogs and cats), is often lacking at these feeding sites.

Unnatural Behavior

• Waterfowl can rapidly become conditioned to, and dependent on, handouts. Fed ducks and geese behave differently. They become more aggressive and eventually lose their wariness of humans. Some will not survive because they can’t compete.

Increased Hybridization

• At many feeding sites, domestic ducks have interbred with mallards, further compromising the wild population.

Water Pollution

• Excess nutrients in ponds caused by unnatural numbers of waterfowl droppings can result in water-quality problems such as summer algal blooms. And where waterfowl congregate to feed, E-coli counts can swell to levels that make the water unsuitable for swimming.

Costly Management Efforts

• Many damage-avoidance techniques such as chemical repellents, fencing, or noise makers are costly and may even be useless once animals lose their fear of humans. At times, it is necessary to destroy nuisance waterfowl because of the damage they cause.

Devaluation

• From treasure to nuisance: wildlife managers recognize that the public’s perception of the value of wildlife is often reduced when numbers swell. When any wildlife population exceeds the number that can be naturally supported by available habitat, this can polarize the public and exaggerate conflicts between landowners who suffer damage and those who visit the site to feed the geese and ducks.

Cumulative Effects

• It may be hard to imagine that a handful of bread or a stray french fry could contribute to such a growing problem. Compound that, though. In most cases where artificial feeding occurs, one well-intentioned feeder leaves and another soon arrives.

Alternatives

• If everyone stops feeding waterfowl, the waterfowl won’t disappear. Families can still visit sites to enjoy viewing ducks and geese. A child can still be encouraged to learn more about waterfowl and their natural habits. And some zoos offer feeding of captive waterfowl.