LAKE BYRON, S.D. (KELO) — Thousands of dead geese have washed up along the shores of Lake Byron, just north of Huron.
Lake Byron can be a hub for snow geese.
“Most of the time, at this time of year, this place will become completely white with geese,” longtime Lake Byron resident Denis Drake said.
But this year, thousands of geese have turned up dead throughout the lake.
“We had such a mild winter, no snow, so a lot of the geese stayed up to about Christmas, and usually, they’re gone by Thanksgiving. They just really started to get the bird flu. We didn’t think we had near the problem until the ice started to thaw out, and that’s when we really realized how many we had,” Lake Byron resident Patrick Breck said.
So people have had to work together to clean up the lake. This is the third year they’ve had this problem, but this year has been the worst by far.
“It’s just gotten really, really bad this year,” Drake said.
“So far, we’ve picked up in six different groups about 20,000,” Breck said.
“They don’t dissolve very fast, and if you go swimming or something, you get one of them wrapped around, it’s just not good,” Drake said.
But community members have been doing everything they can to get the lake back to normal.
“We’ve got a neat community out here where we all get together and help each other out,” Drake said.
“People want to take care of their properties on the lake, and there’s a lot they take a lot of pride in out here,” Breck said.
The geese are being buried nearby on land owned by South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks.
