The Twin Cities Metropolitan Area (Metro), lat. 45o long. 93o, is a 6,076 km2 midwestern urban complex with 193 municipalities and 2.5 million human residents. Pleistocene glaciation left the area with a flat but diverse landscape of lakes, kettle ponds, wetlands, and small streams separated by low moraines and outwash plains. In spite of wetland drainage for development, the Metro presently contains 303 lakes and 2,800 type 3, 4, or 5 palustrine wetlands (Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Unpubl., Cowardin et al. 1979) larger than 1.1 ha. Wetlands cover 37% of the Twin Cities; 3 major rivers, the Mississippi, Minnesota, and St. Croix, and numerous small meandering streams flow through the Metro area, providing additional goose habitat.
There are no historical records, but based on the 8 Metro area "Goose Lake" place names, breeding Canada geese were likely present prior to 18th century European settlement. No breeding wild geese were reported in the Twin Cities until the species was re-introduced in 1955 (Hawkins 1968). Once established, the goose population grew exponentially until population management was implemented in 1982 (Cooper and Keefe 1997). Ankney (1996) reported similar growth of re-introduced Canada geese in Ontario, and Zenner's (1996) data for the Mississippi Flyway giant Canada geese are indicative of similar expansions in other midwestern re-introduced populations. Using breeding habitat as the limiting factor and conservative productivity parameters, Cooper and Keefe (1997) estimated the summer Twin Cities goose carrying capacity at 1 million birds, 40 times that of the current population of 25,000.