Sharing the Grounds: Why We Coexist with Geese (and Clean Up After Them)
If you’ve visited Ford House lately, you may have noticed we share our beautiful lakefront estate with some very opinionated seasonal visitors—Canada geese. And yes, we’ve heard your comments (and seen your careful sidesteps): goose poop is an unfortunate reality here, and we want you to know, we get it.
We want every visit to Ford House to feel magical, serene, and well-kept. That’s why we work incredibly hard, every single day, to keep our 87 acres as pristine as possible. Our full-time, seven-day-a-week Landscape team is outside rain or shine, mowing, blowing, scrubbing, and sweeping to keep the grounds beautiful. And they’ve got backup.
Enter Moss the Goose Dog—our brilliant, hard-working border collie who patrols the estate five days a week, herding geese in a safe and humane way. Moss doesn’t chase to harm but to move geese along gently, using instinct and training to encourage them to find a more suitable hangout spot elsewhere. Together, Moss and the Landscape team are on constant cleanup and prevention duty.
But here’s the truth: Ford House sits on the shores of Lake St. Clair, surrounded on multiple sides by water, and we’re right in the heart of a major migratory flyway for Canada geese. That means flocks come and go frequently, sometimes overnight, sometimes mid-morning, and leave behind reminders of their visit.
As stewards of this land, we believe in sharing it. The sky, the water, and the earth don’t belong just to us. We are committed to maintaining a respectful balance: protecting the guest experience while honoring the wildlife that calls this place home, even if only temporarily.
So, thank you for your patience and your grace as we continue to clean up after our feathered neighbors. We’re doing everything we can to keep your visit joyful, beautiful, and just a little bit wild.
