Boise Residents Can’t Stop Breaking One Simple Law

Have you ever sat in a restaurant finishing a basket of warm breadsticks or some soft delicious rolls before the main course arrived? Requesting a to-go bag for a meal that went unfinished is a common occurrence. Bread is a high source of carbohydrates which can make your stomach hurt and ruin the rest of your day. 

Because of bread-obsessing humans, this is a normal meal for Boise’s waterfowl birds swimming along. 

In numbers, geese are an unstoppable force doing what nature has always intended and that is surviving. Even if that means taking the shortcut and receiving their meal from the palm of our hands. 

Boise parks and rivers have geese and ducks as year-round residents. We can’t blame them, the City of Boise is a great place to set up camp after all. Ducks and geese decide to stay in city parks and river systems since they’re far from predators and take advantage of the abundance of food all around.

 Just never forget to clean up after your family outing. The waterfowl birds that stay in these parks call it home.  We wouldn’t want food to be eaten that has been contaminated with bacteria or left out under burning sun.  Forming diseases such as  aspergillosis, an infection to the lungs, classified as fatel. This occurs when bread is left over from our cookouts or our handouts that go unseen and untouched. 

A side note is to not invade their personal space. Creeping a little too close could lead to aggressive encounters. An experience that might have you high tailing to a more safe distance. 

The Department of Idaho Fish and Game and Boise Parks and Recreation prohibits the feeding of waterfowl and birds such as geese around the City of Boise. 

Geese and duck’s main diet consists of grass, and seeds. Bread isn’t recommended but easily obtainable.  Both the environment and the ecosystem in Boise supplies enough nutrients for the geese and waterfowl birds to survive. When ducks and geese are fed bread, and crackers. This can cause ducks and geese to fill their stomachs and quickly activates the idea they are full. A similarity we share just as well. This leads ducks and geese to eat nothing else with more nutrient value. 

Too much bread isn’t the best for anyone’s health and especially for the ducks and geese all around the parks and rivers in the City of Boise.  Having an abundance of food can lead to overpopulation and an increase of offspring.  

Consider this a fair warning when jogging or walking your adorable four legged friend. Look to the skies when the birds fly above, they aren’t holding when it's time to defecate. An increase of  carbohydrates could lead to the increased chances of these majestic birds leaving a gift on the top of your head.  

The most important thing to keep in mind is this:  don’t feed geese, ducks, and other waterfowl birds, in the City of Boise.  After all, it is against the law.