Duck poop and people feeding a growing number of the domestic and hybrid versions of the birds on Fernan Lake have ruffled the feathers of city officials and residents.

Fernan Mayor Jim Elder said the ducks are fouling water quality because they stay in a concentrated area and don’t leave because people are continuously feeding them.

“It’s like a sewer down there,” said Elder.

Elder wants the public to get the message: Stop feeding the ducks.

“This issue is really misunderstood by the public,” Elder said. “It’s not simply just a matter of going down and feeding the little duckies.”

Elder’s primary area of concern is near the park, boat launch and dock, at the west end of the lake. It’s there where many ducks congregate, and there they are being fed by visitors and Fernan Village residents.

Domestic ducks have been abandoned there, and never leave the lake. The hybrids, born through inbreeding between the wild Mallards and the domestic ducks, stay at the lake as well, he said.

The result is the number of ducks on the lake just east of Coeur d’Alene is exploding and out of balance with what he has known historically on the lake, Elder said.

“What should happen is somebody should go out and clean up the domestic ducks,” Elder said.

The city passed an ordinance a year and a half ago to stop people from feeding wildlife, including ducks, he said. Signs were posted, but the feeding continues, despite the possibility of a $300 fine from the county. Much of the duck feeding likely is occurring covertly at night, Elder said.

Officials from the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department and Idaho Fish and Game said no one has received a fine for feeding the ducks on Fernan.

“Certainly, the ducks are hanging around because of the feeding,” said Nick Snyder, director of the Kootenai County Department of Parks and Waterways, which manages the park and boat launch at Fernan Lake.

He said the no-feeding signs have been there for at least two years.

“Most of our visitors are compliant, but there are the exceptions,” Snyder said. The feeders are a mix of park visitors and residents, he said.

Lynn Sheridan of the Coeur d’Alene Audubon Chapter said the ducks “get lazy and so they just wait there for food.”

Phil Cooper, spokesman for Fish and Game in Coeur d’Alene, said a high concentration of ducks on a body of water like Fernan Lake would have a negative effect on its water quality.

Robert Steed, surface water ecologist for the Idaho Department of Environmental Quality in Coeur d’Alene, said the lake hasn’t been tested for E. coli, which is the contaminant that would reveal any negative effects to the lake from the ducks.

The department would begin testing for E. coli if it was responding to complaints about the ducks.

Still, he said the lake has water quality problems because of high levels of nutrients like phosphorous and nitrogen, which are found in animal and human waste, sediment and fertilizers.

Steed said the lake has had several blue-green algae blooms in recent years because of the high levels of nutrients. The nutrients in the lake come from both natural and human-caused processes in the watershed. Excess sediment from roads, lawn fertilizer, septic drain fields, and storm water all contribute to the nutrient loading. In its toxic form, blue-green algae, and associated Cyanobacteria, can kill pets and cause serious illness in people.

“Don’t let your dogs swim in the water if there is a bloom,” he said. “It looks like green paint floating on the surface.”

The lake is shallow, with an average depth of about 25 feet, and has very little water flowing into it from Fernan Creek at the east end of the lake that could flush it out, Steed said.

Dave Hylsky, a Panhandle Health District environmental epidemiologist, discourages people from feeding waterfowl along lake shores.

“We do have the parasite which causes swimmer’s itch in our area waters,” Hylsky said. “The parasite which causes swimmer’s itch in humans is actually a parasite of the waterfowl.”

The parasite’s natural life cycle is between water snails and waterfowl, he said.

“Humans get infected by mistake when the parasite penetrates our skin, instead of waterfowl, when we are swimming,” he said. “The parasite dies shortly after penetrating our skin, which causes swimmer’s itch.”

Hylsky said that as waterfowl numbers become more concentrated in an area, it increases the chances the parasite will burrow into the skin of more swimmers. Cases of swimmer’s itch have been reported from Fernan Lake, he said.

Rita Whiteford, 74, who has lived next to the park and boat launch for 14 years, said she has seen hundreds of ducks gathered by the launch.

“Our lake is dying already, we’re trying to keep it as healthy as possible, and this certainly is not helping,” Whiteford said.

When she first moved in to her home the ducks were not a problem, and she and her family would swim down by the park. Not anymore, she said.

The combination of domestic ducks being dumped there, hybrids growing in population, and people continuing to feed them has created an environment where the fear of swimmer’s itch keeps everyone in her family out of the water.

“You can’t walk down to the boat launch anymore,” she said. “There’s duck poop everywhere.”

Two years ago, deer were the problem for Fernan residents.

Town officials contracted with animal control experts to trap and relocate deer as the population had grown and the animals were feeding on residents’ trees and plants and just simply making a mess. Residents had been feeding the deer, too, so the animals didn’t leave the area and became domesticated. Idaho Fish and Game authorized the trapping and relocating.

“They chased children, and little, old ladies,” Elder said. “They can be mean.”

He said 18 deer were removed this winter, between October and February. That was fewer than last year, when 33 were removed.

“We’ve dramatically reduced the deer problem in Fernan,” he said. He said more deer removal likely will be necessary in the future.

The ducks are the main problem now, he said.

Elder said his family has owned a home on the lake since 1965, and the duck situation has gotten out of hand in the last 10 years. He’s been mayor the last six years, and was on the City Council for five years before that.

During the summer, Elder, Whiteford and other residents say, hundreds of ducks can congregate around the boat launch and dock throughout the season.

“It’s gotten progressively worse because of the feeding,” Elder said.