Plants best so far at fending off Canada geese in Mishawaka parks

Newly planted native wildflowers have finally grown up and bloomed along the St. Joseph River’s bank at Crawford Park. The idea: Block the geese from simply walking on shore from the water. Earlier this year, the park had erected a thin snow fence that had the same effect.

“We did get a lot of compliments (from neighbors) about the look of the wildflowers,” Mishawaka Parks Superintendent Phil Blasko told the parks board Monday in an update on the six goose deterrents that his department has tried this year. “It’s gone over well.” 

He said neighbors have reported seeing fewer geese — especially when contrasted with Merrifield Park, which is just on the other side of Merrifield Avenue. Merrifield Park may also see a wildflower barrier once this year’s overhaul of that park is done, Blasko said, along with river edges in Beutter Park and Kamm Island and at Eberhart-Petro Golf Course.

South Bend and St. Joseph County parks officials say they let grasses grow up around wet areas this summer and found similar success. It was just last summer when Mishawaka hired a contractor to gather and kill 589 geese from the city’s golf course and parks — a method that local park leaders have said they want to avoid.