Oliver’s town council will be looking to renew their urban goose hunting program.

The program was started over a decade ago in 2010, with the intention of cutting down on the urban goose population in Oliver, particularly at Tucelnuit Lake and around the Oliver Airport.

Part of the impetus was complaints from residents over the growing urban goose population, which have gone down since hunting began being permitted.

Since the program began, on average the town has issued six permits for hunters in a season, who are required to provide the town with the number of kills and their locations.

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The urban geese are considered an issue due to the fact that they do not migrate, and continue to nest in the area they were born for generation after generation, as well as contributing to water quality warnings for the lake and at beaches.

The town also supports the goose-addling program based out of Kelowna with $2,000 a year.

In the past three years of the program, according to the information submitted to the Canadian Wildlife Services’ Environment Stewardship Branch, there were 58 geese killed in 2020, 34 in 2019, and 51 in 2018. Of those geese, 45 were killed around the airport, and 74 were killed within the town’s boundaries.

Council will vote on whether to continue the program on Oct. 12.

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