Preston - After trying motion sensor lights and fake coyotes to little avail, the Parks and Recreation Department is preparing to wage war against the more than 200 Canada geese that have invaded Preston Community Park in summer and fall.

The problem has gotten so bad over the past two to three years that some youth softball, baseball and soccer practices and games were moved to Preston schools. An outdoor fitness program that included exercises on the grass was canceled.

The Parks and Recreation Department placed a request for $5,275 in its proposed 2015-16 budget to cover an agreement with the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to trap and euthanize geese and harass them with pyrotechnics, remote vehicles and other methods. Crews would return monthly or bimonthly at least 10 to 12 times starting in August.

"I coach the softball team on the fields that they are literally trashing," Parks and Recreation Commission Chairman Antonio Farinha said. "There's literally as much goose droppings as there is clay. The balls are rolling, and whenever they grab it, the girls are getting it on their hands. We felt it was necessary to at least add it in our budget."

Farinha and Parks and Recreation Director Amy Brosnan said the problem is not caused by park patrons feeding the geese. That has been minimal and quickly discouraged, Brosnan said.

First Selectman Robert Congdon supported the plan and suggested it be extended to the town's schoolyards and the Amos Lake area, where the geese go when they are scared away from Preston Community Park. He would like the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to lead a regional or statewide Canada goose control program.

Min Huang, head of the DEEP migratory bird program, said the state agency doesn't directly conduct geese removal programs but works with towns to have them contract with licensed wildlife removal firms or the USDA to remove the birds. He estimated the state's Canada geese population at about 30,000.

"Preston is certainly not alone with regard to having a goose problem," Huang said.

The DEEP conducted a survey about eight years ago and found 70 percent of the state's cities and towns had a problem with Canada geese. Huang said Connecticut has a "very liberal" hunting season for the nonmigratory Canada geese that has controlled the problem in some locations.

The problem persists in public parks and urban areas where hunting is not possible and lawns are mowed frequently. The birds love fresh, new-growth grass. Huang recommends capturing and killing all the birds at one location and donating the meat to food banks.

Canada geese lose their flight feathers in a late summer molt and at that time cannot fly. That's when it would be easy to round up and euthanize the entire flock, Huang said - except for political and emotional backlash. No towns have proposed total removal, Huang said.

Connecticut Food Bank spokesman Christopher McBriarty said no agency has offered Canada goose meat to the food bank, the state's largest provider of charitable donated food. He said any donated food would have to be processed through licensed and federally inspected programs.

Jillian Corbin, executive director of the St. Vincent de Paul Place soup kitchen in Norwich, said the facility at times receives donated deer meat but has never been offered Canada goose meat.

"We certainly would be open to it," Corbin said.

Milan Bull, senior director of science and conservation for Connecticut Audubon, said Canada geese were brought here from western states in the 1930s in small flocks. This giant sub-species, Branta Canadensis maxima, does not migrate, so proponents figured to establish a hunting stock.

The population exploded once the small flocks in Stamford, Branford and Hartford started to overlap and interbreed, Bull said. The population has since stabilized, but problems persist.

Preston park officials hope their plan will be supported by residents during the spring budget discussions.

"We have a beautiful park, and we've had people telling us they actually go elsewhere because of the geese," Brosnan said. "We want people to enjoy it."

c.bessette@theday.com

Twitter: @Bessettetheday