Like bread for a duck, a new animal feeding ban at Waller Park could be tough to swallow.
New educational signs outlining the park’s rules–and reasons for them–were installed on Aug. 23, and North County Parks Operations Manager Dan Pedersen said the move is an effort to protect Waller Park’s ducks, fish, and ponds.
For nearly six months the Santa Barbara County Parks Division has been working out ways to best enforce an age-old code that prohibits parkgoers from harming wildlife, Pederson said. Education, signage, and a feeding ban seemed to be the simplest options, he said.
“We’re just asking [community members] to stop feeding the animals for the benefit of the animals mostly,” Pederson said.
Although area residents have been feeding ducks at Waller Park for decades, Pederson said the activity can cause serious damage. The processed foods often uses to feed ducks–typically bread or popcorn–have little to no nutritional value and can hurt the animals that digest them. Pederson also said that leftover foods sit in the ponds, rot, and cause massive algae blooms, some of which have been so severe in past years that pond fish died.
“It’s just not good for pond quality,” Pederson said.
The feeding ban will be enforced by county staff and park rangers, and Pederson said the county is still working to inform and educate community members about the new rules. Pederson said he expects it will take some time for people to accept the rules, and for now, violators will not be harshly punished.
George Johnston, a member of the Friends of Waller Park, said that while he’s glad to see the county working to protect wildlife, he’ll be sad to see the long-held tradition of duck feeding fade away.
Johnston said he hopes the county will consider an alternative duck- and fish-friendly feeding option in the future. While bread could hurt the animals, he said bird seed, grapes, and peas are more animal-appropriate, and could potentially be sold by the park’s food vendors.
“Everybody goes out there, and they’ve done this for God knows how many years,” Johnston said. “So there maybe is an alternative option that could be better than the bread.”
This article appears in Aug 30 – Sep 6, 2018.