Jeremy Siegel: You're listening to GBH's Morning Edition. Paris, I want to ask you a couple of questions.
Paris Alston: Okay. What's on your mind?
Siegel: You ever walk down the Esplanade along the Charles River?
Alston: Oh, yes, of course.
Siegel: All right, follow up question. Have you ever stepped in goose poop there?
Alston: Definitely. And probably sat on top of it on a blanket.
Siegel: Yes. This is a problem on the Esplanade, especially in the summer. And it's a growing one. There are literally miles-long stretches of land that can become an obstacle course of goose droppings. In fact, a couple of years ago, Vice News did a Freedom of Information Act request for documents at the Boston City Council and found that the city is overwhelmed with complaints surrounding goose poop.
Alston: Oh, my goodness.
Siegel: Yeah. These geese that call the Charles River and the land around it home, they just poop everywhere, indiscriminately, which can be a big issue when there is a gathering or an event like a concert at the Hatch Shell.
Alston: Yeah, because I can't imagine a successful night out with lots of geese poop all around me.
Siegel: Exactly. But if you've been to an event on the Esplanade at the Hatch Shell, the odds are you have been able to walk and sit without poop ruining your night. And that is not an accident. The goose poop, somebody is cleaning it up.
Alston: Oh, my goodness. I'm going to take a gander here, Jeremy. Are you telling me there is a goose poop cleaner?
Siegel: There is a goose poop cleaner somewhere out there. And it got me wondering: who? Who is cleaning up this goose poop? So I reached out to the Parks Department and tracked down the guy who makes sure that you do not have a messy and smelly time on the Esplanade. Do you want to meet him?
Alston: Well, of course.
Siegel: All right, here we go. And just a warning to folks listening. This interview, as you might expect, contains a lot of poop.
Eric Gotthold: Hi, my name is Eric Gotthold, I'm a forest and park supervisor for DCR here on the Esplanade, standing in front of the Hatch Shell, using a piece of equipment here designed to sweep grass and remove goose poop from it. So really simply, it's a broom that's geared to some tires on the machine that when the tires are moving, the broom moves quickly and it sweeps goose poop up into a collector. You're not going to get it all. You're just trying to make it better than it was. But you really can't overthink it. It's just driving in circles. Go to the same speed, and if there's less poop on the grass after you're done, then you did a good job.
Siegel: What's your relationship to goose poop? Like, do you hate it?
Gotthold: I don't have a relationship with goose poop, it's just part of my job and I clean it up.
Siegel: What about geese? Like, what goes through your mind when you see a goose around here?
Gotthold: I don't really think about them too much.
Siegel: So the geese, like, never come home with you, in your mind?
Gotthold: They don't. They don't.
Siegel: What got you interested in this work?
Gotthold: Picking up goose poop specifically? Nothing. I was in recreation work in New Hampshire before this and moved to Mass. and started working for the state parks. And so I landed here. This is just a task, another one, like just cleaning bathrooms or changing trash barrels. It's just a part of it.
Siegel: Does it get tiring?
Gotthold: No, it's not. You'll see when we get going, it's really not too much. And again, just driving in circles. My limited understanding of goose anatomy is that it just — it's a constant system where whatever comes, it goes out. They don't have any control over it, doesn't matter where they're standing. It's just a constant situation. You spent an hour doing this and you clean it up. Then the geese come in ruining it again, and you're trying to keep them off.
Siegel: Is that a bummer to, like, clean it all up and then hour later, it's just filled with geese poop again?
Gotthold: Again, I try not to take it too personally.
[Sound of geese honking and an engine revving.]
Siegel: There he goes. You can totally see, like in the spot he just went through, it's a much cleaner line than where he was before. Oh, my God. That is just a pile of goose poop.
Gotthold: Can you smell it?
Siegel: Yep.
Gotthold: They know when this is going to be crowded with people and when it's empty. And I can almost guarantee if you come here about 3:30, there'll be about 60 geese on the grass. Yeah. They'll sleep over overnight here. You'll see them in the morning. They disappear for most of the day, I guess they go in the water, and then they'll be back in the evening.
Siegel: Have you noticed the problem getting worse at all over the past few years?
Gotthold: Yes. A lot of these guys, they don't migrate. They just stay on the Esplanade year round. And if you don't control the numbers one way or another, they'll just continuing to increase. I think they don't get harassed by anything down here. They really only respond to like, Australian Shepherds. That's the only type of dog that really bugs them. Other than that, nothing really bothers them. So there's no one eating, you know, nothing's eating these geese, and things like that, so. There's definitely people who feed them down here, which is, there's rules against feeding wildlife in state parks. But, you know, it's mostly ignored. If you don't like the scene of how much goose poop is out in the grass areas around Boston, just don't feed the geese. That will help eventually to reduce the numbers, I think.
Siegel: Well, it has been absolutely fascinating, learning about this and seriously, thank you so much for your work and thanks for taking the time to talk about it with me.
Gotthold: Yeah, no problem. Thanks for coming down.
Siegel: That was Eric Gotthold, the park supervisor for the Esplanade and The Hatch Shell. And Paris, I do want to emphasize something that I learned while talking with him, which is that this is a small part of his job. Overseeing the parks and the maintenance involves a ton of work, and Eric does not want to be known as the goose poop guy.
Alston: Well, I wouldn't want to be there if I was Eric. I can understand.
Siegel: Yeah, but to be honest, watching the work and seeing him use this machine to clean it up, it is something to be proud of. Like DCR and Eric and his colleagues, they're doing something that other parks haven't done before, actually. This machine is basically unique to them, and they're kind of mavericks in the world of park maintenance.
Alston: No cooking their goose, huh?
Siegel: Yeah. So next time you are on the Esplanade and you're lucky enough not to step in poop, just know that there is a reason you did not. There is a person who is responsible for keeping things clean. And if you want to help out, maybe just stop and think next time you consider feeding a goose. You're listening to GBH's Morning Edition.
Visitors to the Esplanade, the park that stretches along the banks of the Charles River in Boston, know it all too well: Goose poop is everywhere.
The unwelcome souvenirs are a problem on the Esplanade, especially in the summer. And it's a growing one: There are literally miles-long stretches of land that can become an obstacle course of Canada goose droppings.
The geese that call the Charles River and the land around it home just poop everywhere, indiscriminately, which can be a big issue when there is a gathering or an event like a concert at the Hatch Shell.
But if you've been to an event on the Esplanade at the Hatch Shell, the odds are you have been able to walk and sit without poop ruining your night. And that is not an accident.
There is a goose poop cleaner somewhere out there.
And a warning to readers: This interview, as you might expect, contains a lot of poop.
Eric Gotthold, a forest and park supervisor for the Department of Conservation and Recreation on the Esplanade, does not want to be known as the goose poop guy. His job involves so much more, and overseeing the parks and the maintenance involves a ton of work.
But one thing Gotthold does is get into an orange vehicle that looks like a riding lawnmower with a hitch on the back and drive around, the attached rolling broom picking up goose droppings as he goes.
“Really simply, it's a broom that's geared to some tires on the machine so that when the tires are moving, the broom moves quickly and it sweeps goose poop up into a collector,” Gotthold said.
The goal, he said, is not to eliminate every goose dropping from the park. That would be impossible.
“You're not going to get it all. You're just trying to make it better than it was,” he said. “You really can't overthink it. It's just driving in circles. Go to the same speed, and if there's less poop on the grass after you're done, then you did a good job.”
The constant stream of droppings does not bring up any resentment, he said.
“I don't have a relationship with goose poop, it's just part of my job and I clean it up. I don't really think about them too much," he said. “My limited understanding of goose anatomy is that it's a constant system where whatever comes, it goes out. They don't have any control over it, doesn't matter where they're standing. It's just a constant situation.”
So what got him interested in this line of work?
“Picking up goose poop specifically? Nothing,” he said. “I was in recreation work in New Hampshire before this and moved to Mass. and started working for the state parks. And so I landed here. This is just a task, another one, like just cleaning bathrooms or changing trash barrels. It's just a part of it.”
That's the Sisyphean task: Gotthold sweeps the grass. The geese return. And Gotthold sweeps the grass again.
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“You spent an hour doing this and you clean it up. Then the geese come in ruining it again,” he said. “Again, I try not to take it too personally.”
He has picked up on some of their habits, he said. The fewer people are on the Esplanade, the more geese are milling about. They’ll disappear for most of the day, moving to the water or finding another place to spend the day, and return later in the evening when most humans have left the park.
Canada geese can migrate, but some of the Esplanade’s resident geese are no snowbirds, Gotthold said.
“They just stay on the Esplanade year-round,” he said. “I think they don't get harassed by anything down here. They really only respond to like, Australian Shepherds. That's the only type of dog that really bugs them.”
They have few natural predators and constant sources of food — sometimes from people feeding them, which, as Gotthold noted, is ill-advised.
“There's rules against feeding wildlife in state parks. But, you know, it's mostly ignored,” he said. “If you don't like the scene of how much goose poop is out in the grass areas around Boston, just don't feed the geese.”
