Tuleyome’s Science Corner: Snow Geese

Geoffrey Benn • January 13, 2024

Snow goose in flight by Frank Schulenberg

In the Sacramento Valley, we are fortunate to have a year-round calendar of natural wonders to enjoy. One of the highlights of the winter season for me is an annual pilgrimage up I-5 to visit the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge near Willows. SNWR is the winter home to hundreds of thousands of migratory birds, including huge numbers of snow geese. If you’re lucky enough to be on the auto tour route while a flock of snow geese takes off, be sure to roll your windows down to listen, as the din caused by thousands of hungry mouths and flapping black-tipped wings is truly unforgettable.

Flock of snow geese taking off from Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge by Geoff Benn

Snow geese ( Anser caerulescens ) are a medium-sized species of goose that can be found in great numbers in certain parts of North America. They are migratory birds that breed during the summer months in the far northern reaches of Alaska, Canada, and Greenland, and then travel south to the continental US and Mexico for the winter months. The species is split into two subspecies, based on geography – the lesser snow goose winters in Mexico and the western and central US, whereas the greater snow goose winters along the Atlantic coast of the US.

Wintering grounds are not just a place to find food during the cold months – they’re also where snow geese find their mates. Snow geese mate for life and typically choose their partners during their third or fourth winters. Each year in the early spring, the pairs will return to the same area of the far north where the female was hatched to build their own nest.

Historically, snow geese are believed to have relied on wetlands in their wintering grounds for food, but most now derive the bulk of their winter nutrition from leftover grain in farm fields. The great abundance of this food source led to a significant increase in the population of snow geese in the second half of the 20th century, going from as little as a few thousand individuals in 1900 to over 5 million today. This dramatic population increase resulted in significant damage to vegetation in the winter nesting grounds of snow geese, posing a threat to other species that use these same areas. To counter this danger, increased snow goose hunting quotas were implemented in the late 1990s. Populations have since stabilized, though still at a higher level than desired by wildlife managers. The short-term outlook is thus very good for snow geese, though climate change may pose significant challenges in the future, with a predicted loss of 73% of their range under a +2.0C global warming scenario.

If you’d like to see the snow geese for yourself, the best time to see large numbers of them at SNWR is from November through early March. It’s a great way to get outside and enjoy nature when hiking trails are muddy or covered in snow.

-Geoff Benn gbenn@tuleyome.org

Tuleyome Education Associate

Looking for more articles like this? Click the hashtag below!

RECENT ARTICLES

Beavers, otters, and more – new Conaway Ranch game camera footage!

By Geoff Benn • June 4, 2026
A beaver at Conaway Ranch We’ve got new footage from our game cameras at Conaway Ranch! This camera site was chosen by 4 th graders from Dingle Elementary during a recent field trip to Conaway. The camera is near the otter slide we’ve previously filmed, but is a few feet away from the entrance to the slide, allowing us to film the animals as they approach. We saw beaver, otter, a fox, a raccoon, and more! Click here to watch the video . Tuleyome works with Conaway Preservation Group to offer educational programs at Conaway Ranch, including programs for K-12 groups and the general public. If you have any questions about the game camera footage or our programs at Conaway, please reach out to Education Associate Geoff Benn at gbenn@tuleyome.org.

Policy Corner: It’s Time to Fight for Our Public Lands

June 4, 2026
The current administration has released its proposed budget for the 2027 fiscal year. It proposes drastic cuts to our public land management agencies. The proposed budget would significantly reduce funding for the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), including a 34% cut to its total budget, a 27% staff cut, a 76% cut to the National Conservation Lands, which encompass 38 million acres of protected public lands, a 61% cut to recreation management (including campsites and trails), and total elimination of funding for cultural resources and wilderness management. It also would shift priorities towards extractive uses of public lands instead of conservation and clean energy. The administration’s budget would also drastically cut funding to the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), eliminate several offices, state and federal research stations (six in California) and transfer all fire fighting to BLM. Notably, in the face of all these cuts, the budget would increase funding for extractive industries; funding for timber sales would increase 450%. The reductions and policy changes would impair these agencies’ abilities to protect public lands, cultural resources, fresh water sources, and wildlife, while also impairing access to them and recreation on them. The President’s budget is now in Congress, where committees in both the Senate and the House of Representatives are amending and voting on the bills in preparation for full House and Senate votes. Now is the time to take action for our public lands and the environment by urging Congress to reject the proposed budget and maintain funding for BLM, USFS, and programs that protect and steward our public lands. Let your representatives know that you oppose the cuts to BLM and USFS and the rollbacks to our public land protections. And let them know why these special places are important to them. You can voice your opinions to Congress in multiple ways. You can: Call their offices Send a letter to Congress - we’ve pulled together a template for you to use, but don’t forget to let them know why public lands are important to you – download sample letter here Contact them on social media Meet with a representative in their District offices. Don’t know how to reach them, go to Congress.gov and find their phone numbers, addresses, district offices, websites and so much more if you’re interested. Now is the time to speak up for our public lands! Mary Lamborn (Communications Intern) and Sandra Schubert (Executive Director)

Monumental Questions - Another Monumental Vegetable?

By Kristie Ehrhardt • June 4, 2026
You betcha! Wild carrot, also known as Queen Anne’s Lace, is a common sight within the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument region. With its straight and sturdy stalk, bright green, frilly leaves and white, flat-topped flower clusters, it is identifiable even from the limited viewing scope of a traveling car. Queen Anne’s Lace ( Daucus carota ) belongs to the Apiaceae (carrot) family. All members of this family display flower clusters arranged in an upside-down umbrella shape called an umbel. It is native to Europe and is the plant that tasty cultivated carrots originated from. It was brought to North America for its medicinal purposes and has since naturalized across the continent in disturbed and natural areas in mountains, valleys and coastal areas. It can be so prolific that it outcompetes native plants and can also be mildly toxic to livestock. Queen Anne’s Lace is an herbaceous biennial (it doesn’t flower until its second year and then dies) that can reach up to four feet tall in optimum conditions. The stem of the plant is bright green, straight and sturdy and is covered in short, coarse hairs which is a very helpful identifier. I recently learned a clever and helpful quip that I will never forget: Queen Anne has hairy legs (referring to the hair along the stems of the plant)! The tiny, white flowers all originate from the same point and splay out in an airy, flat topped cluster (umbel). Another identifying feature is that oftentimes (but not always) the flower umbels often have a single dark purple flower in the center of the cluster. This purple flower is not always present but when it is it can be used to positively identify the plant as Queen Anne’s lace. The leaves are finely divided which gives them a lacy appearance and look almost identical to our cultivated carrot plants. Although wild carrots are edible, the whitish tap root isn’t as robust or flavorful as the cultivated carrots we are used to. Warning! There are plants such as poison hemlock that are incredibly similar looking so eating things in nature is never advised unless you can absolutely identify them! Poison hemlock has basically the same growth pattern as wild carrot however the stem of poison hemlock lacks the tiny hairs and mature plants have very definite purple splotches up and down the stems. All parts of poison hemlock are toxic but it is particularly potent in the seeds and roots. Poison hemlock is notoriously known as the poison that killed the Greek philosopher Socrates. Edible cousins of wild carrot include plants such as caraway, celery, parsley and parsnips. Although the root of the wild carrot plant is edible, contact with the sap may produce an allergic reaction in some individuals that are sensitive to it. Native pollinators such as butterflies and bees appreciate the abundance of flowers for their nectar. Wild carrot is currently blooming in all its glory so keep an eye out for it on your next trip to our favorite monument!