The estimated 270 geese that called Liberty Park home -- until recently -- may feel like they were put in a time machine and sent back to the Wild West.

First they were tarred (they already were feathered) and now they will be escorted out of town to west-central Utah.

The Canada geese were rounded up at Liberty this past weekend after 33,000 gallons of oil from a broken pipeline spilled into Red Butte Creek upstream from the park's pond.

Tom Aldrich, waterfowl program manager for the Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, had just arrived Saturday to check on the geese for a relocation effort when he noticed workers along the pond.

"Ironically, we were planning on moving them the next day," Aldrich said. "I found myself in the middle of total chaos. We mobilized the crew and caught the birds and moved them to the zoo."

Hogle Zoo and Tracy Aviary staffers helped the state wildlife agency move the geese to the zoo, where the birds were cleaned and have been drying out and developing new waterproof feathers. Goslings also were captured. (About 90 ducks were treated as well and will be returned to the park.)

Geese molt their old feathers and grow new flight ones each spring about this time. Aldrich said it was lucky the birds were in the middle of that process.

"Thankfully, they were flightless or we would not have been able to catch them," he said. "A couple were able to fly and they got away."

Now that the geese are clear of the oil, DWR officials will complete the relocation plan. The birds will be loaded up at the zoo Friday morning and delivered to Clear Lake near Delta, where biologists hope they stay.

Utah launched a new program and study five years ago to deal with the state's growing urban goose population. During that time as many as 7,000 geese have been rounded up along Wasatch Front golf courses, parks and condominium ponds.

"Fifteen years ago there was not much of an urban goose problem, but the population has been growing rapidly since then," Aldrich said. "When hunting season starts, the 'wild' birds come into town and we have roughly 15,000 inside the city."

The geese have found safety from predators and hunters in the city and, with plenty of food available, no reason to migrate.

"Everybody likes to see a few, but when you start seeing populations of this size, they really are causing some nuisance problems," Aldrich said. "We had a goose-making machine with no end in sight."

Golfers and joggers often complain of having to travel through large goose-dropping zones, where the sticky waste attaches to shoes and ends up in cars and homes.

Because the birds are a protected species and can be killed only by licensed hunters, golf course and park managers are not allowed to do anything about them.

Utah officials gained permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to hand out permits allowing holders to destroy eggs and nests, but decided to try the study first.

Goslings were banded and then "infused" into broods of wild geese in northern Utah waterfowl-management areas. Aldrich said those birds have been shot by hunters throughout the West and in Canada.

"This suggests they are doing what wild birds do," he said. "We have moved an estimated 4,000 and only five or six have been found back in the city."

Biologists have not been as successful with relocated adult geese. They marked between 2,500 and 3,000 adults and hauled them to Clear Lake. Aldrich said the numbers still need to be worked, but he estimates 40 percent to 50 percent of the adult geese returned to where they were captured.

"Many other states handle the situation by killing geese," he said. "Hopefully this research will show us how to handle the problem without killing everything. The geese are more valuable than that."