ABOVE: Some of the geese carcasses on the middle of Lake Sisseton in Fairmont. The city plans to start removing some from the shoreline today.

FAIRMONT– Today members of the city’s public works department plan to start removing some of the dead geese from the shorelines of the Fairmont lakes. The carcasses began showing up in early December and after testing several of them, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) did confirm that the geese died from Avian Influenza.

Chad August, Assistant Area Wildlife Manager for the DNR had called it ‘a big mortality event across the midwest’ as the agency received not only reports of dead geese on Budd, Sisseton and Fox lakes in Martin County but from other lakes around the region.

Originally, the DNR had advised local municipalities and residents to leave the geese where they were, but still many local residents questioned why the city wasn’t removing them.

“When they’re on the lake, the lake is the jurisdiction of the DNR and not the city so we have to follow the DNR’s recommendation and that’s what we did all winter,” said Public Works Director, Matthew York.

The expectation was that the carcasses would naturally get scavenged by other wildlife, but that did not happen to the majority of the carcasses.

“Now with the lakes opening up, we’re having them float around and we’re having to take matters into our own hands. We spoke to the DNR and they don’t have the resources to take care of all of them in the state of Minnesota,” York said.

The plan is, beginning today, that some public works staff will retrieve and remove as many carcasses from the shorelines on public properties as possible.

“Any place where there’s public access from the waterfront,” York said.

This is the plan for the next few weeks and beyond that, York believes they may have to address it from the water by putting staff in boats to reach the remaining carcasses.

He said if citizens want to assist with the removal process, they’re welcome to do so. They’re advised to wear proper personal protective equipment, such as gloves and a mask when touching the carcasses. They should also double bag the carcasses before disposing of them.

York also addressed the concern about the carcasses in the lakes where the city pulls its drinking water from.

“Our water is tested multiple times everyday and all of the industry standards for drinking water have been met at every testing cycle. At this point in time there is no issue with our drinking water in the city,” York said.