It’s only April, and already the Goose Lady of Green Mountain Falls has rescued two orphaned baby ducks dumped in the small scenic lake in the mountain village west of Colorado Springs.

“They were domestic ducks somebody bought around Easter,” Ann Pinell said. “They wouldn’t have had a chance at the lake on their own. I’ve got to find a good home for them.”

In addition, the 76-year-old Pinell has tended a goose so badly tangled in fishing line that it was crippled.

“He lost his leg,” she said, describing a common fate for waterfowl at the lake that fall victim to carelessly discarded fishing line. Pinell regularly patrols for fishing line that often litters the banks of the lake, which dates to the town’s founding in 1898.

And she had to get a fishing hook removed from the webbed foot of her beloved Roy, a domesticated goose, unable to fly, who has lived in the lake six years with daily care and feeding from Pinell.

“It takes our whole village to pick up all the fishing line and hooks,” she said. “It’s so detrimental to the fowl.”

She worries what the summer will bring because the usual flock hasn’t arrived yet for the summer.

“We only have three sets of nesting geese right now,” she said.

The one thing that doesn’t seem to worry Pinell is the possibility she could be ticketed again, as she was last Labor Day weekend, and face another fine for her missions of mercy.

But Pinell is hopeful the ticket was an aberration and that the village Board of Trustees soon will remove the threat before summer brings dozens more ducks and geese – a tourist attraction that the village has enjoyed for decades.

Others aren’t so confident, and they alerted me to a discussion at a March 17 board meeting at which members of a wildlife committee suggested buying vending machines to dispense feed for the ducks and geese and restrict feeding to children 12 and under. No action was taken, but those present came away fearing Pinell would again be a target of the town marshal if she indulges her passion of protecting the waterfowl.

Pinell, however, is undeterred and confident the board will see the wisdom of caring for the flock.

After all, she reasons, what kind of impression would tourists have of Green Mountain Falls if ducks are allowed to be crippled by fishing line or impaled by fishing hooks or left to starve because their mother abandoned them?

“Oh, I’m very hopeful. I think everything will be fine. I think it will be the way it’s always been since I’ve lived here,” said Pinell, who has been in the town since 1955.

She realizes there are some steps that need to be taken.

“We have to keep the ducks and their babies out of the road at night. I know people get upset when they stop traffic. But we don’t want them to get hit by cars.”

With that, Pinell capsulized the problem that led Green Mountain Falls officials to take up the issue of feeding the waterfowl.

The issue divides Green Mountain Falls, generally pitting longtime residents like Pinell who value the wildlife and sight of ducklings waddling around the village against newcomers who see them as an annoyance because they poop all over the park and picture-perfect gazebo on the lake, and they stop traffic as they cross the roads.

I called Mayor Lorrie Worthey numerous times to learn about plans for the waterfowl this summer. But she did not return my calls.

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Ann Pinell, 76, pictured Friday, Oct. 3, 2014, has been taking care of the geese and ducks, including a domesticated goose Roy in front, for years at the Green Mountain Falls lake. Pinell was ticketed on Labor Day for feeding the wildlife. (The Gazette, Christian Murdock)

CHRISTIAN MURDOCK, THE GAZETTE

Bill Vogrin – Side Streets

In 1888, developer W.J. Foster had crews dig a lake, lay out streets and build a three-story hotel that opened the next May. The gazebo was built on an island in the lake in 1890. It is a popular place for weddings. Bill Vogrin / The Gazette