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Nearly 50 ducks rescued from Orem park as city hopes to control population problem

Posted at 9:23 PM, Jun 15, 2022
and last updated 2022-06-16 00:44:02-04

OREM, Utah — Everyone in Orem knows Nielsen’s Grove Park has a lot of ducks.

“Ducks appeared and they've been problematic ever since," said Reed Price, Public Works Director for the City of Orem.

Over the years, people have abandoned pet ducks there. They’re feeding them, and the population keeps growing.

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“It's fun to have ducks at a park," said Price. "Kids love to come and feed them. They come to love to chase them. But over time it becomes a nuisance. It becomes a health concern as they as their waste is found everywhere, and with bird flu that's been concern recently.”

The city of Orem tried everything, including draining the pond.

“We drained it because of the drought, and also thinking that that might encourage the ducks to fly away," said Price. "But we found out that that didn't happen.”

Other cities have resorted to killing ducks, but Price didn’t want to do that, so he called in the Wasatch Wanderers, a local animal rescue founded by Adison Smith this past fall.

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“Ducks can make great pets if you know what you're doing," she said.

Smith has rescued hundreds of ducks just in the last year.

“It wasn't that I had a particular fondness of ducks, but I saw an animal in need and decided that I'd do something about it," she said.

Smith and her squad of volunteer rounded up as many ducks as they could Wednesday evening.

There are other organizations that focus on saving ducks in Utah, including: "For Duck's Sake" and "Ducks and clucks."