Published on February 26, 2026
A sure sign of the changing seasons is the spectacle of hundreds of Canada and Cackling Geese traveling through Colorado.
Habitat loss and unregulated hunting caused major population declines. In response, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service collected geese and raised them in managed settings to help rebuild the population. Many of these geese were later released in city parks, where they were safer from hunting pressure.
One unexpected outcome: some of the released birds lost (or never developed) the strong instinct to migrate. That’s why we now see different goose populations today—some that live in urban areas year-round, and others that pass through seasonally during migration.
Geese are an impressive conservation success story, and migration season is a great time to appreciate how far their recovery has come.
These migrating birds add to our year-round goose population, and human interactions increase throughout the Town.
The geese are generally welcome visitors, and we do our best to coexist with them, giving them space and watching out for them as we bike and drive through the community. In some areas of Town, geese can cause a bit of a nuisance and quite a mess along sidewalks and paths.
To safely deter geese from congregating in more public areas, sidewalks, and pathways, the Town has placed coyote decoys strategically around Superior. Decoys will move occasionally to different parks during the migration season.