Fake...

A few years back now our parks and recreation department decided to try and do something about the overabundance of geese in our parks. I don’t know for sure what it is that prompted the actions they took but it most likely is attributed to the amount of droppings left in the areas where the geese graze. I like most people I hope love the sight of our annual visitors but I do agree that they can leave quite a mess in the areas where they congregate the most. However I would gladly put up with the mess to enjoy the sight each year.

The dispersal method that parks and rec decided to use is basically a scare tactic. Use the bird’s natural instinct to fly away from a predator. So they cut out plywood silhouettes of wolves /coyotes or some sort of dog like animal on the prowl and disperse them around the open areas of the park where the geese like to feed. The funny thing is that when the black dogs first started showing up I don’t think it did a whole lot to change the way the geese behaved. However it did scare the you know what out of me a few foggy mornings as a rode through Ann Morrison Park on my way to work. Eventually my natural instinct was subdue and they just became part of the landscape after the first few weeks. I’m sure this was the case for the geese after the dogs failed to attack the first day.

Now after a few years we have hundreds of beat up silhouettes some missing legs most with bashed in backs from being spiked in to the turf year after year all scattered throughout the park system faded in to the background going unnoticed to me and all our seasonal visitors. I decided for this project to bring a little attention back to these poor forgotten plywood cut outs.

I decided I needed to make some plywood cut outs of my own something that might get people to take notice of the wooden wolves again. For the first project of this series I decided it was time to domesticate these wild beasts. I cut out a full size figure one that could leash one of these dogs and take it for a walk. I made a full size pattern of a figure with his hand extended out to hold a leash. Cut the shape out of some reclaimed plywood and used some left over paint we had lying around the shop to give it an even coat of silhouette black. I attached a steel rod to the back of his leg that could be pounded in to the frozen ground. By the way it is mid-winter when this project was done and the high for the day is 21 degrees. I drove through the park and found a suitable candidate to be leashed.

It is a very cold day and besides the very hard frozen ground the install was fairly fast. We decided to sit back and see how people would take notice. I’d like to say that lots of people came by and took a good hard look. But being such a cold day the park was not the most popular place to recreate. We had a few people drive by in their cars and a few did stop to take a prolonged look. Most were focused on the goal of getting to their destination and staying as warm as possible. I decided to leave the project up for a few days this time to see if the weather would warm up a bit so we could get a little more foot traffic. I came back a few days later to find that the plywood man and his leash were gone.

I will have a second project in the wooden wolf series that will take advantage of less harsh temperatures in the early fall when the dogs come back out to stand watch again.