Seattle battles to keep park greens free of goose poop

Seattle Parks employee Gary Ekman gives a Goose Goo Gone Machine a spin Wednesday at Gas Works Park while some geese take a gander. The city is the first municipality in the United States to try out the device, which is "basically a carpet sweeper for grass," says its inventor, Ed Zylstra of Victoria, B.C. City parks officials are looking into the machine as an alternative to rounding up and killing the waterfowl that leave a mess on the lawns. A goose can produce 5 pounds of droppings a day.