Proposed Medford duck feeding ban is a daffy idea

The City of Medford is crying foul over the foulness left by water fowl and is looking at cracking down on those who feed the foul fowl.
The city's comprehensive plan is a pretty hefty document weighing in at about the weight of your average mallard. It includes a lot of really good ideas proposed by citizen volunteers.
The ideas include changing the zoning on the campus woods to conservancy district like the other parks to give residents additional protections for how it is developed and setting goals for addressing long term community needs.
Rather than enacting any of those ideas, the Medford City Council Tuesday night sets its sights on ducks. Or more accurately, the city is taking aim at those nefarious do-gooders who feed the ducks in the city parks. The issue is not so much the ducks and geese but what is left behind when the ducks and geese hang around. Some people have a lot of problems with the waste the waterfowl leave along the pathways and since you can't ticket a goose for illegal dumping, the solution instead is to cut the flow off at the source.
If Alderman Mike Riggle, who is a veterinarian in his day job, has his way, the city police department would be out ticketing grandmas and small children for contributing to what he perceives as a duck and goose overpopulation problem. This is just plain daffy and even Riggle rightfully predicts the idea will go over as something akin to trying to ban the eating of apple pie and the flying of flags.
Medford police officers have far more important things to do than to harass people using the parks and feeding crusts of bread or even buckets of corn to some ducks in the pond.
A feeding ban is one solution to a perceived duck overpopulation problem and it is interesting to note citizens who served on the planning subcommittee did not consider a ban as a practical option.
Fortunately, some on council opposed the idea and instead proposed a compromise where the city would spend several hundred dollars to post signs along the Riverwalk nicely asking people not to feed the waterfowl. Having seen drivers go in the ditch to drive around an officer stopping traffic for a community event, the likelihood of having the signs do any good is slim.
If a feeding ban is not the solution then what is? In the past the resident duck population was ruled to be so interbred with domestic ducks dumped at the park they were no longer considered wild. Perhaps it is time for the city to cull the duck population in the park either through the introduction of additional predators such as snapping turtles, mink or fisher to the parks or through the active removal of duck populations in a humane manner.
Rather than criminalizing kids and grandparents for connecting with wildlife, the city should instead be looking at some bigger issues facing the community such as ways to promote community growth or making the community more friendly for people to move here.