The signs warn against it.
But season after season, Howard residents bring bags of stale bread, tossing handfuls of crumbs to feasting waterfowl at the lakes.
“People think feeding them bread, popcorn and Cheerios might be pretty harmless, but it?s not their natural food,” said Brenda Belensky, natural resource manager for Howard?s Department of Recreation and Parks.
As warm weather beckons people to the edge of Centennial Lake, officials are reminding park-goers to leave the snacks behind.
“It?s a seasonal thing, and it will probably occur as long as there are bodies of water with people around them,” Belensky said.
But the handouts can be harmful to both birds and humans alike, she said. For the birds, the munchies can be nutritionally dangerous. The food can go bad or be infected with bacteria, which can be deadly, said Nicholas Throckmorton, spokesman for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Birds also will come to rely on the feedings and become unable to find their own food, Throckmorton said.
“By feeding geese, you are artificially increasing the food available to them, and then one day when people stop feeding them, we have hungry geese,” he said.
It can be a hazard for humans, too. Birds expecting to be fed will follow people, even if they don?t have food, Belensky said. This can be trouble, particularly for small children, should a goose mistake fingers for food, she said.
“We just don?t want geese and ducks to associate being fed with humans,” she said.
In Columbia, officials also have a campaign against feeding the waterfowl. Signs are posted around lakes, and the Columbia Wildlife and Habitat subcommittee reaches out to the community to remind residents of the dangers, Columbia Association spokeswoman Karen Hawkins said.
