By Madison Warren
Cover photo – Lake Ronkonkoma as seen from the northwest shore in April (Credit – Matt Meduri)
The Lake Ronkonkoma Advisory Board is on a mission to restore Lake Ronkonkoma to its original purity in 2025. Suffolk County Legislator Leslie Kennedy (R-Nesconset) recently sat down with The Messenger to outline the big plans she and the advisory board have for the upcoming year. If re-elected in November, Kennedy hopes to bring the board back to the level of influence and effectiveness it achieved in 2020, when its last major initiatives were underway.
One of the board’s primary tasks this March is geese egg oiling, also known as “egg addling.” This practice, supported by research from Cornell University, is an effective and humane method of controlling the local geese population without harming them. Destroying nests or eggs would typically result in the geese relocating and nesting elsewhere. However, egg oiling pauses the reproductive cycle in a non-disruptive manner.
After receiving training and state certification, participants locate geese nests in areas surrounding Lake Ronkonkoma. They carry a bucket of water and vegetable oil to test the eggs. Eggs that float in water are already in a too advanced stage of development and are to be left undisturbed. Eggs that sink are still in the beginning developmental stages and can be treated. Participants cover these eggs in vegetable oil, mark them with an X to indicate treatment, and return them to the nest. This process prevents the eggs from hatching without causing harm to the geese.
Kennedy emphasized the importance of community involvement, stating, “I want as many people trained in this as humanly possible.”
This takes a team effort. Geese are known to be protective of their eggs, so to achieve this task in a safe manner, one needs an armor of protection, like an umbrella, to intimidate the bird if it gets too close. Opening the umbrella is often enough for the geese to back away while the other person conducts the test. According to research done by Cornell, geese abandon a location after three consecutive years of unsuccessful breeding. This method has been proven to reduce the geese population, which will reduce the high nitrogen levels in Lake Ronkonkoma caused by geese droppings. Excessive nitrogen contributes to harmful algae that grows at a rapid pace that is too fast for the ecosystem to keep up with.
Egg oiling is just one of the many initiatives planned by the advisory board. With extensive research and community support, Kennedy remains determined and hopeful to purify and protect Lake Ronkonkoma.
The first advisory board meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, January 29 at 6:00p.m. at the William H. Rogers Building – the regular meeting location of the Suffolk County Legislature – in the William J. Lindsay County Complex in Hauppauge. A training and certification session for egg addling, conducted by Cornell, will take place in early February. These meetings are open to all individuals interested in contributing to the preservation and restoration of Lake Ronkonkoma.
