Adaptive management of geese in a restored tidal freshwater wetland.
Jobe J, Krafft C, Milton M, Gedan K
Urban Ecology
If geese or deer are trampling the native plantings at your local park or nature preserve, targeted population control — not just fencing — can unlock the vegetation recovery that restoration crews have been waiting years to see.
Researchers fenced off some patches of a restored wetland to keep geese out, and left other patches unprotected. For years, the open patches stayed sparse and beaten down by grazing. Once the park managers started actively reducing the local goose population, the unprotected patches came roaring back with more plants, more species, and more diversity. The one catch: what the plant community looked like at the very start of the experiment still left a fingerprint on recovery 15+ years later.
Key Findings
After goose population control began, unprotected plots recovered to closely resemble fenced exclosure plots in total plant cover, species richness, and Shannon-Wiener Diversity Index.
Community composition (which species were present) recovered more slowly than cover or richness metrics, lagging behind other indicators of restoration success.
The initial vegetative state of plots in 2009 continued to influence recovery trajectories through 2025, demonstrating a long-lasting legacy effect on plant dynamics even after 16 years.
chevron_right Technical Summary
Controlling a resident Canada goose population in a Washington D.C. wetland restoration allowed native plant communities to bounce back strongly, with more plant cover, species diversity, and richness recovering to near-exclosure levels within a few years of goose management.
Abstract Preview
Failure to account for top-down control on vegetation dynamics can strongly influence restoration trajectories. Abundant (large) herbivores can impede restoration efforts by exerting intense grazin...
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