Radio Script
1998

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Snow Geese Trash Tundra
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STORY: Visit the Canadian high Arctic in the spring and summer, and you'll hear the raucous calls and squawks of snow geese.

Snow geese by the millions are here in the lakes and potholes of the Canadian high Arctic to nest and raise their young. With their white plumage and broad, graceful wingspans, snow geese are indeed a beautiful sight. But in a case of too much of a good thing can be bad, scientists like Donald Rusch of the University of Wisconsin say a snow goose population explosion is destroying their habitat.

RUSCH: "Snow geese are doing very well. Their population is growing at a rate of 5 to 6 percent per year. They're expanding the size of their breeding range. Snow geese especially have reached population levels where they are beginning to overgraze their tundra habitat. They're beginning to have impacts on Canada geese and other birds and animals that share their range."

And while the damage can easily be seen on the tundra, its cause is actually far to the south, on the sprawling farms of the United States. It is on these farms that snow geese spend their winters eating silage and leftover crops. Donald Rusch.

RUSCH: "The increase is related to changes that have occurred in areas where snow geese winter, primarily the mid-continent portion of the United States. Geese, snow geese among them, have benefited from the conversion of land from prairies, oak savannas and coastal marshes to such things as corn, winter wheat, soybeans and rice."

Scientists say reversing the damage done to the tundra may take decades, but that action is needed now. An international team of biologists and government agencies, called the Arctic Goose Joint Venture, has proposed changes to hunting seasons aimed at trimming the flocks.

RUSCH: "There may be a very high price to pay in terms of habitat biodiversity and productivity if we wait twenty, fifty years or however long it takes for the snow goose population to reach the carrying capacity of the Arctic environment and crash by itself."

OUTRO: For Arctic Science Journeys, this is Doug Schneider, reporting from Fairbanks, Alaska.