Populations of the goose, a small subspecies of Canada goose found only on a few of Alaskas remote, windswept islands and in areas of California and the Pacific Northwest, numbered only in the hundreds in the mid-1970s. Today, biologists estimate there are 32,000 birds, and the threat of extinction has been eliminated.
"Humans nearly drove the Aleutian Canada goose to extinction, and humans, through the Endangered Species Act, saved this magnificent bird," said Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt. "The proposal to delist the goose represents a great victory and demonstrates yet again that through conservation and recovery efforts, we can bring threatened and endangered species back to healthy levels.
The Aleutian Canada goose joins a growing list of once-imperilled species that are on the road to recovery, including the bald eagle, the peregrine falcon and the Columbia white-tailed deer.
The Aleutian Canada goose, identifiable by a distinctive white neck band, nests on islands within the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge and winters in Oregon and California. Biologists trace the decline of the subspecies back as far as 1750 when fur farmers and trappers introduced foxes on more than 190 islands within the gooses nesting range in Alaska. The fox introductions hit their peak from 1915 to 1936 when fur demand was high.
The foxes decimated the birds, which had no natural defenses against land predators on the previously mammal-free islands. Biologists found no Aleutian Canada geese from 1938 until 1962, when a Service biologist discovered a remnant population on rugged, remote Buldir in the western Aleutian Islands.
The Service made the goose one of the first species or subspecies protected under the Endangered Species Act, passed in 1973. The first accurate count of the birds in 1975 revealed only 790 individuals. In the early 1980s, biologists found small numbers of breeding geese on two other islands.
For the past 35 years, biologists have worked to remove introduced foxes from former nesting islands and reintroduce geese. Removing foxes benefitted many other bird species on these islands, including puffins, murres, and auklets.
Besides removing foxes, the Service and state wildlife agencies closed wintering and migration areas to the hunting of Canada geese; banded birds on the breeding grounds to identify important wintering and migrations areas, and released families of wild geese caught on Buldir on other fox-free islands in the Aleutians. In California, the Service has worked extensively with local landowners in cooperative partnerships to protect and manage wintering habitat on private land through fee title acquisition, easements and voluntary programs. Important wintering and migration habitat in California and Oregon also has been acquired as national wildlife refuges.
As a direct result of these recovery activities, the population increased to 6,300 birds by 1990, enough for the Service to reclassify the subspecies from endangered to threatened. The recovery continued through the 1990s, with new populations firmly established on Agattu, Alaid and Nizki islands in the western Aleutians.
The overall population of Aleutian Canada geese is four times greater than the recovery goal established by the Service. It is on the strength of recovery in the western Aleutians that the Service bases its proposal to delist this subspecies. Although the recovery goal of 50 or more pairs of Aleutian Canada geese nesting in the central Aleutians and in the Semidi Islands has not been met, the population is stable and work to bolster these populations will continue until they have reached the 50 pair objective.
The Service considered two other factors in proposing to delist the subspecies. First, Japanese and Russian scientists are undertaking a program to reestablish Aleutian Canada geese in the Asian portion of their range. So far, Japanese and Russian scientists have released 86 geese on Ekarma in the Kuril Islands. Japanese scientists have observed several of these birds on the wintering grounds in Japan.
Second, the Service, through the Migratory Bird Treaty Act as well as the Endangered Species Act and state wildlife agencies have made conservation and management of winter and migration habitat in California and Oregon a high priority. The Service and the State of California also are carrying out plans to reduce competition between geese and humans on privately owned crop land and pastures.
If the Service decides to delist the Aleutian Canada goose, biologists will monitor the population for five years. The Service will pay particularly close attention to the small number of geese that nest in the Semidi Islands and winter on the north coast of Oregon.
Although the goose would no longer be protected under the provisions of the Endangered Species Act, the subspecies would still be protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.
The proposal will be published in the Federal Register on August 3. The public comment period on the proposal will close on November 3. The Service invites all interested parties to comment. Comments should be mailed to: USFWS Ecological Services/Anchorage, 605 West Fourth Avenue, Room G62, Anchorage, Alaska 99501. Copies of the proposal can be obtained by calling Greg Balogh at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service at 907-271-2778.
