MADISON, N.H. (AP) – A change in federal regulations is making it easier for people in New Hampshire and other states to hunt nuisance Canada geese and destroy their nests and eggs without permits.

Before August, it took a long time to get a federal permit to control the birds, which often don’t migrate south in winter and may congregate in large flocks, fouling ponds, golf courses and lawns with their poop.

Now landowners can destroy nests and coat goose eggs with oil to inhibit hatching. No permit is needed as long as they report their actions online.

Federal permits to kill adult geese are being issued more quickly.

States also have the option of taking over the permitting process, said John McConnell, director of wildlife in New Hampshire and Vermont for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

“It used to be we’d tell them, ‘Plan a year in advance,”‘ he said. “Now it’s more like four to six weeks.”

This summer, a USDA official told homeowners on Silver Lake that some coves and beaches had unacceptably high levels of E. coli bacteria, thanks to an accumulation of goose droppings.

The flock has left for the season, but some homeowners have begun planning to get permits to deal with the geese next season. Others call the eradication methods inhumane, and debate has raged ever since – as it has in other communities around the country.

Resident Canada geese are a human creation. The wild goose population was supplemented by relocation programs and encouraged by people who fed and sheltered them, so many no longer follow their natural cycle of nesting in Canada and migrating with the seasons. In 35 years, their numbers have increased from a quarter of a million to more than 3 million.

McConnell said states can extend their hunting seasons and increase bag limits under the new federal rules.

The three northern New England states let hunters shoot Canada geese during monthlong hunting seasons in September. The New Hampshire bag limit is five per day and hunters get 1,200 to 1,500 each year.

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