Jefferson Conservation District

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The Jefferson Conservation District is a local unit of state government (a Title 32 Special District), one of 76 conservation districts in Colorado that work to provide a local voice on natural resource issues, and work collaboratively with private landowners, residential communities, and local, state and federal government entities to protect the natural resources of Jefferson, Gilpin, and Clear Creek Counties of Colorado’s Front Range. The district was formed 73 years ago in 1941.

What is a Conservation District?

Conservation districts grew out of the Dust Bowl of the Great Depression. Originally called the “Soil Conservation Districts” they were formed to bring landowners together to protect against widespread soil erosion. Since then their mission has evolved to include conservation of all natural resources, such as water, land, air, vegetation, and wildlife.

What does JCD do?

JCD, like most conservation districts in Colorado, works alongside local, state and federal partners to conserve natural resources within the district boundaries. Within our district, a few concerns dominate:

Wildfire Mitigation – The Front Range is subject to wildfires every summer from roughly April through November. Each summer brings the renewed threat that a wildfire will damage public and private property; degrade air quality, cause injury or loss of life. As more people chose to move into the “Wildland-Urban Interface” (the area populated by humans but not fully urbanized), the risk to property and safety become greater. JCD works with local landowners and agencies to reduce these risks with a selection of fuels treatment projects.

Forest Health – The majority of the land within the District’s boundaries is forested with a variety of common tree species. Human impacts such as timber production and wildfire suppression over the last 150 years have frequently left stands of uniformlyaged, uniformly-sized trees of a single species. These stands lack diversity and can be highly susceptible to insects and disease offering up massive amounts of readily-combustible fuel during a wildfire. JCD works with private landowners to encourage a healthy, resilient forest with a variety of forest management methods.

Source Water Protection – Over half of the drinking water supply for Denver and surrounding communities comes from streams and snowpack within our District boundaries. JCD works collaboratively with water providers, landowners and local communities to meet water quality standards and to conserve water.

Urban Agriculture – Increasing access to nutritious, local foods within our District is important to us, particularly as more residents become overweight and are disconnected from the source of their food. We work with a multitude of partners to educate the public on how to grow one’s own food and to encourage home and community gardens and farmers’ markets that are inclusive for people of all income levels. We also provide technical assistance to beginning urban farmers to implement appropriate conservation practices.

Noxious Weeds – Noxious weeds are ever-present on the Front Range and represent a threat to biodiversity and natural ecosystems’ stability. They are often water-hungry and spread quickly onto lands where they were never planted. JCD provides educational materials to landowners and communities, and sells a native grass seed mix designed specifically for the conditions on the Front Range.

JCD is housed by a long-standing agreement within the Denver Metro offices of the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS), an agency of the U.S Department of Agricultural. Our office is located in Building 56 of the Denver Federal Center.

Our mailing address is:

Jefferson Conservation District

DFC, Bldg. 56, Room 2604

PO Box 25426

Denver, CO 80225-0426

Our phone number is: 720-544-2870

Our web site is: www.jeffersonconservationdistrict.org 

Jeffco Open Space Communications and Community Involvement Plan

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The long-desired goal to develop a Jeffco Open Space Communications and Community Involvement Plan was completed in July and approved by the Advisory Committee at their August meeting. Multiple events garnered momentum for this plan, from the public input during the Crown Hill Park project to the process which updated the Jeffco Open Space Master Plan. Also, as a requirement of the Commission for Accreditation of Park and Recreation Agencies (CAPRA), Jeffco Open Space has to have this plan in place.

The Overall Communications Goal is to provide accurate, consistent and timely information to Jeffco Open Space customers – Jefferson County residents, users of parks, trails and facilities, program participants, and service beneficiaries.

Increase awareness of Jeffco Open Space benefits, services, responsibilities and results by increasing Panorama subscriptions, Facebook fans and Twitter followers. Jeffco Open Space will collect email addresses and organize them by park, region and division for various communications.

Produce an annual report from the information contained in the Quarterly Management Reports and post on the Jeffco parks website (http://jeffco.us/parks/).

Improve communication and information management by:

Conducting a statistically valid, quantitative survey prior to updating the Master Plan.

Identify what the audience wants to hear, needs to hear, and already knows, while designing messages that address misconceptions and convey benefits. Seek feature reporting for compelling topics. Use a monthly feature on KUSA-TV’s “Colorado and Company” to address specific issues.

Support rangers in creating materials related to health, safety and natural resource protection issues in our parks, including Share & Care messages.

Employ multimedia communications:

Traditional media – Issue news releases to media — newspapers, radio and television stations. Solicit coverage from individual reporters.

Social media (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube) – Create compelling messages, initiate contests and invite participation. Utilize videos to help convey complex information and highlight enjoyable recreation and nature/history experiences.

Brochures and other printed materials – Use graphic standards and warm, friendly and easy-to-understand messages.

Website – Continually improve and update the website. Review analytics quarterly. Keep content fresh and succinct.

Signs/Kiosks/Displays – Follow style guide, graphics and sign standards. Develop attractive and engaging displays to invite public dialogue at community festivals and promote attention at parades. Construct and maintain a photo database for easy retrieval of images by location and subject.

Increase employee motivation and satisfaction by:

Providing opportunities for employee dialogue and recognition

Supporting the acknowledgment of extraordinary work through award nominations and media placements Supporting continuing education, networking and training for Communications Team members.

The Community Involvement Goal is to increase public involvement that allows Jeffco Open Space to receive information from the community on an ongoing or project-specific basis. This will help Jeffco Open Space formulate decisions related to their projects, programs and services.

Define and promote methods for citizens to communicate needs and interests.

Invite public involvement and make processes apparent.

Build stronger relationships through better community relations.

Develop and implement community involvement guidelines and strategies suited to each circumstance.

Employ email lists and newsletters to invite participation.

Use contacts at Homeowners Associations to invite participation.

Continually improve and provide opportunities for feedback and input.

Engage the public through participation in community festivals, parades and events hosted by partner organizations and neighboring municipalities.

Invite participation through communication mechanisms.

Acknowledge public participation through posting of comments in listening logs, or showing polling results for a particular effort on the website and in media releases.

Marketing Goals:

Increase awareness of Open Space and Parks and our role in enriching life.

Help connect outdoor recreation with health.

Collect, provide and maintain email contacts and subscriptions to promote the benefits and opportunities of life-enriching experiences.

Key Messages to be featured in the planned communications include:

Enriching Life – Jeffco Parks and its divisions enrich life. We provide quality experiences for our customers, visitors, participants, staff and volunteers. With unique and accessible parks across the County and knowledgeable, caring staff, we offer an enduring value for businesses, their employees and the community at large.

Share & Care – Knowledge is powerful. By having an understanding of the value of the outdoors and the amenities within Jeffco Parks, our customers will have a greater appreciation for the park resources that we steward. The Share & Care message is reinforced by Leave No Trace ethics, natural resource management expertise, and programs provided by Colorado State University (CSU) Extension, Lookout Mountain Nature Center and Hiwan Homestead Museum. A variety of volunteer opportunities allows the public to engage in sharing and caring for their parks in a deeper way, and extends the work of the organization.

Lifelong learning and award-winning programs may be emphasized under the banner of Share and Care.

Nature-Health Connection – Enhance the ongoing partnership with Jeffco Public Health to call attention to research connecting outdoor recreation with better health. Produce monthly news releases shared with cities and districts for their communication outlets. Promote healthy opportunities for citizens, promoting physical and economic vitality in the process. 

Dinner Speaker Describes Elk Mountains Retreat

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by Vicky Gits

Ian Billick, PhD, the executive director of one of the nation’s renowned biological laboratories, founded 80 years in the Colorado ghost town of Gothic, spoke May 8 at Plan Jeffco’s annual dinner with the commissioners at the Applewood Golf Course. Dr. Billick introduced the dinner attendees to the activities of the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory (RMBL), a scientific research outpost eight miles north of Crested Butte and the Crested Butte ski area. The summer program at this famous biological study center attracts students, scientists, and tourists.

Ian Billick was appointed to head the nonprofit 501c(3) organization in March 2012. He is a graduate of the University of California at San Diego and previously was a student and worked at the lab. He was a visiting professor at Truman State University and a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Houston, conducting ecological research on population and community biology prior to accepting the RMBL opportunity.

The RMBL provides living facilities, access to research sites and laboratory sites and helps manage the information generated by resident scientists. The lab employs a staff that varies seasonally from 10 to 75 people and maintains 70 buildins on 1,300 acres. The lab is a gathering place for leading scientists and provides an outdoor classroom where the next generation of field scientists can be mentored.

The lab is inaccessible to the public in the winter but in the summer months welcomes visitors and offers workshops and special classes for children. It operates on a budget of about $2 million a year.

The RMBL Education Program offers students the opportunity to decide if a career in field biology is right for them in an active scientific community with up to 160 scientists, postdocs, graduate students, staff and family members.

RMBL has had the opportunity in the last 80 years to document the positive and negative effects of climate change on the ecology surrounding Gothic. The recent effects are that some migrating birds are arriving earlier in the spring, before some of the insects have hatched. The climate change also is affecting those mammals that inhabit the higher altitudes as the warmer temperatures are forcing them to even higher altitudes where there is less forage.

More information on the laboratory is available at www.rmbl.org 

Flooding at Crown Hill Open Space Park

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Greetings Crown Hill Friends,

Areas of the Park are flooded.  Please be aware that there is water 2-3” deep flowing across the trails between Crown Hill Lake and Kestrel Pond.  Rainy weather and  irrigation equipment problems for Crown Hill Cemetery has resulted in water being over delivered into Crown Hill Lake.   Jeffco Open Space is working with Crown Hill Cemetery to resolve this issue.  Please use caution and try to avoid these flooded areas.

http://planjeffco.org/open-space-park_crown-hill-park.html

Thank you for your patience while we work to resolve this issue.

Apex Park Flood Recovery Update

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A year has passed since the historic record-setting rains and flooding along the northern Front Range of Colorado damaged towns, homes, roads and parks.  Today, much of the damage has been remedied with areas of greatest impact still closed.   At Apex Park, 3.8 miles or 40% of the Park’s trails were severely damaged.  Community support and staff dedication has allowed the majority of the park to be reopened for public enjoyment. Portions of Apex Trail, which runs the length of the Park, have remained closed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=3ovhNwC41Ok

Earlier this year, Jeffco Open Space anticipated that the work on Apex Trail would be completed and the remaining closures lifted by September 30.  That target date will not be met as elements in the process for trails recovery have been out of the agency’s control.  By the end of 2013, the County committed to seeking Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding for recovery efforts.  Factors that influenced the process included federal and local delays.  One of the final steps in order to receive federal funding for trail restoration, an environmental assessment needed to be completed before any work could get underway.  The draft environmental assessment public comment period closed on August 29, 2014 and the FEMA approval and a Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) could be issued as early as the end of September or as late as mid-October.  With the appropriate local and state permits obtained, and federal approvals, Jeffco Open Space can then begin Apex Trail restoration as well as remaining work at White Ranch Park and North Table Mountain Park.

Trails supervisor, Kim Frederick, anticipates Apex Trail restoration can be completed by November 26, 2014 and the remainder of the Park reopened, providing the weather cooperates.  The Apex Trail project will include building of abutments and placing bridges over severely washed-out treads and other restoration activity to provide a safe and enjoyable trail experience.  Upon completion of Apex Trail work, the odd-day directional travel by mountain bikers will be reinstated on Apex, Argos and Enchanted Forest Trails, as had been in effect prior to the flooding events.

The realignment of the damaged Pick N’ Sledge Trail will be completed by the spring of 2015 with limited trail closures for construction.  For additional information please see jeffco.us/parks/parks-and-trails or register for Apex Park emails by sending a message to apexpark@jeffco.us to join the list.

I would like to extend a HUGE thank you to all of you who have volunteered time over the past year towards our flood recovery efforts at Apex and elsewhere in the Open Space system.  We could not have done it without you!

Tim Sandsmark

Lookout Region Supervisor

Jeffco Open Space

720-497-7602 direct

303-916-6553 mobile

 

 

Land and Water Conservation Fund Will Expire 9/30/2015

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From Federal Parks & Recreation, Vol 32, #17, September 12, 2014:

Hunting and fishing conservation groups last week jumped onto the campaign to extend and strengthen the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which is due to expire at the end of September 2015.

Groups ranging from back country hunters to archery enthusiasts combined to detail in a new report the successes of the 50-year old LWCF and the need to renew it.

The hunters and fishermen add a powerful additional voice to the renewal campaign already under way by the Obama administration, park and rec agencies at all levels, environmentalists and other citizens.  Of note many hunters and fishermen, if not most, are Republicans and House Republicans are consistently the lead critics of LWCF.

“Yet despite the fund’s many conservation success stories, it has gone underfunded for too long, and many opportunities to improve game and fish resources have been missed due to a perpetual lack of funding,” said Whit Fosburgh, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.  “Now is the time for Congress to live up to its commitment and fully fund the LWCF.”  President Roosevelt was of course a Republican.

In its report the hunters and fishermen describe 11 major land acquisitions using LWCF money that have benefitted outdoorsmen.  For instance, in the MidWest the report says LWCF has contributed $600,000 to help expand the Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge from 5,470 acres to 10,000 acres.

The Ottawa refuge land that contains habitat for waterfowl is threatened with “urbanization, agriculture, invasive species and diking,” says the report, adding that hunting and wildlife viewing in the Lake Erie area produces $1.5 billion in sales and supports 50,000 jobs per year.

In the West the report describes a pending acquisition of Tenderfoot Creek within the Lewis and Clark National Forest in Montana.  “This property has been a national priority for us to acquire and transfer to the Forest Service for several years now and we are very close to finishing it.  It is a tremendous elk hunting area, and with the elimination of the checkerboard ownership, habitat management for many species should improve,” said Blake Henning, vice president of lands and conservation with the Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, which led the effort to purchase the land.

The report from the hunting and fishing groups – including The Rocky Mountain Elk Foundation, the Mule Deer Foundation, the National Wild Turkey Federation, Ducks Unlimited and Trout Unlimited – is available at: http://www.trcp.org/images/uploads/wygwam/LWCF_REPORT.pdf.

Meanwhile, the Obama administration continues to lead the campaign for renewal of LWCF.  On September 3 Secretary of Interior Sally Jewell marked the 50th Anniversary of the program and the 50th anniversary of the sister Wilderness Act at a ceremony in New Jersey.  Three New Jersey House members joined her – Reps. Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-N.J.), Rush Holt (D-N.J.) and Leonard Lance (R-N.J.)

Jewell said the LWCF law authorizes the expenditure of up to $900 million per year from offshore oil and gas revenues, but Congress seldom appropriates a fraction of that much.  She said at the event, “$16 billion has been invested, $19 billion has not been invested because it hasn’t been appropriated by Congress, but it’s been authorized.”

Although a significant number of senators from both sides of the aisle support LWCF and have endorsed its renewal, the political outlook for a new, stronger law is a bit cloudy.

By itself LWCF stands little chance in the House, where western Republican critics of the program hold sway in the House Natural Resources Committee.

Perhaps LWCF’s best opportunity lies in a possible package of legislation, and then after the November 4 elections.  Now Senate Finance Committee Chairman Wyden is reportedly considering such a package that would reauthorize LWCF in combination with reauthorizing county assistance programs such as Secure Rural Schools and payments-in-lieu of taxes.

Former Sen. Max Baucus (D-Mont.) introduced stand-alone legislation (S 338) last year that would also extend LWCF at $900 million per year in guaranteed money.  The money would continue to come from offshore oil and gas revenues.

Meanwhile, the House continues to hammer LWCF in annual appropriations bills, while the Senate is a little more generous.  On July 15 the House Appropriations Committee approved a fiscal year 2015 Interior and Related Agencies appropriations bill (HR 5171) that would reduce federal land acquisition by $138 million, from $187 million in fiscal 2014 to $49 million in fiscal 2015.

Leaders of the Senate subcommittee on Interior appropriations August 1 proposed a draft bill that would include $137 million more for federal land acquisition than did the House committee, $186 million to $49 million.

The Senate subcommittee leaders recommended $48 million for the state side of LWCF, or $2 million more than the $46 million the House committee approved in HR 5171.

And as we have reported, some supporters of the Park Service worry that Jewell and company are giving so much emphasis to renewal of LWCF that they are neglecting the Park Service’s 2016 Centennial. 

 

GOCO Needs Your Help

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Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO) has just completed a series of public meetings gathering input to their strategic plan on how to spend their funds for the next five years. They are still gathering input using an online survey that gives you the opportunity to select your priorities. Go to www.gocolistens.org/bp/we-need-your-help and become part of the solution!

www.GoCoListens.org

On Golden Clouds

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Perhaps city folks don’t notice, but few who live in mountains and foothills escape knowing when the pines are doing their thing, and this spring was certainly one of the obvious ones. We see pollen adrift on spring puddles, pollen gathered from the roof to collect in rain barrels, pollen like golden dust all over our decks–marking the tracks of squirrels that have passed. We may fuss at the inconvenience of this annual deposition, especially if we’re the ones that sweep up, and we may question whether all the mess is truly necessary. Along the way to your deck, though, aren’t there a few compensations?

Pollen of pines and other conifers appears in great golden clouds loosened by spring breezes to drift and swirl across mountain landscapes. A combination of events makes this special sight possible, and you ought to consider yourself lucky to catch it. The dark green background of conifer dominance gives these seasonal clouds their dramatic visual setting, surprising newcomers and delighting residents with a familiar, yet mysterious, phenomenon. Probably there are other golden clouds—of grass, or cottonwood, or willow pollen—destined to remain invisible only because they lack the necessary dark backdrop to display themselves effectively.

The air is so filled with this evidence of male energy taking wing that even the evening news begins to notice. When mentioning pollen, does the weatherperson report that this massive outpouring ensures future generations of Colorado’s forests? Not so. Too often we take the presence of airborne pollen to be yet another inconvenience. But look at it from the other point of view for a moment. Perhaps the pollen grain finds it inconvenient to be forcibly snuffed up into a foreign and inhospitable land—our noses—where its germination processes can’t possibly aid the procreation of its species and can only annoy our own. Far from its intended destination, the inhaled pollen grain attempts to initiate a pollen tube on the moist surface of our nasal passages, chemically eating its way through the tissue, much to our continual discomfort.

Had the errant grain landed on a more hospitable surface, sifting down between the scales of a developing female pine cone of the correct species, its life would likely have been longer and more productive. The successful pollen grain spends the entire summer growing a pollen tube—dissolving its way through the soft tissues of the female cone. During the winter it is dormant, its growth arrested by cold. A new surge of growth in spring brings the tube within reach of the developing egg, where it deposits a sperm cell about 13 months from the time the original pollen grain left the parent tree. That’s a substantial lifespan for a single cell, and just the beginning for the seed that’s to mature in fall. But surely only a tiny fraction of pollen grains enjoy such a fate.

What good are all those unsuccessful grains? Besides the allergy-annoyance and resultant boost to the pharmaceutical economy, pollen grains collectively have plenty to tell. Carried by the slightest breeze and its own bladder-like wings, pine pollen spreads far and wide—in space and in time. Its abundance and resistance to decay make it an important fossil marker. Fossils and fossil pollen closely related to our pines have been found in Colorado from rocks deposited in Cretaceous time, as much as 100 million years ago. Other fossil conifers—and their typical two-winged pollen grains—date to the Carboniferous Period, some 300 million years ago. The distinctiveness and widespread occurrence of this pollen type have made it useful to us in another way—as evidence of past climates and environments. Pine pollen, for example, is regarded as an indicator of warm, dry climates, and is used extensively to document the comings and goings of glaciers during the last million years.

Pollen chronologies ought to be unreliable. After all, pollen can be carried far above the Earth on air currents, or it can be washed into rivers and transported out to sea. So far from its source, it may not be telling us what we think. You would expect strong winds and varied source environments to create an incomprehensible mix—a regional pollen stew from our golden clouds. The wide dispersal of wind-borne pollen surely blurs the distinctiveness of the record it creates. Despite such concerns, pollen dating works—ask any oil company who has profited by trusting the usefulness of this tool.

Copyright © 2014 Sally L. White

Illustration by Jan Ratcliffe

Living and Playing in Coyote Country

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Creating coyote-savvy open space users and residents helps reduce conflict between coyotes, pets and people throughout Jefferson County. Educating and motivating citizens to help preserve open space and the wild species that use it is at the core of the PLAN Jeffco mission. This is the first of two articles designed to improve our understanding of and to stimulate conversation about coyotes and their presence in our parks and communities. The comments and observations quoted below are actual observations and thoughts from Jefferson County residents and park users and are taken directly from the comment section of the Denver Metro Area Coyote Hazing Survey (Winter 2014).

Please join the conversation—send your coyote comments or questions to: mbonnell@cojefferson.co.us

Coyote Savvy Concept #1: Coyotes Make Great Open Space Managers

“We like [coyotes] because they take care of rodents such as mice and prairie dogs.”

“Frankly, I LIKE the coyotes. I avoid my neighborhood park because of the geese and their ‘leavings’ – the coyotes keep Crown Hill clean!”

Simply put, it pays to have coyotes living in open space. Coyotes help manage populations of would-be nuisance or economically damaging species such as mice, geese, rabbits and insects. Coyotes enrich our open space experience with a rare opportunity to watch an apex predator in action.

“Coyotes enforce the leash laws. They are helpful.”

“Off-leash dogs are an invitation for [coyote] conflict.”

“What we need is more responsible actions on the numerous people I see letting their dog run off leash. This is not good for the dog or the coyote.”

While coyotes are not officially part of the Jefferson County Open Space Volunteer team, they might as well be. Coyote-savvy dog walkers know that the best way to keep a dog safe when walking in coyote country is to keep it on a leash. As the local “top dog”, coyotes sometimes are compelled to see our domestic canines as direct competition for resources such as food and territory. This competitive urge tends to peak during breeding, denning and pupping season. In parks, this competitive urge can play out in “escorting” behavior where a coyote will trot, at a distance, alongside or behind a dog walker. Dog walkers experiencing this unnerving behavior should be prepared to shorten their lead and actively “haze” or scare the coyote off by yelling, waiving arms and using noisemakers such as a whistle or air horn. Dog walkers should never allow pets to approach pups or known den sites. As pups emerge and begin to explore their surroundings, coyote parents can exhibit heightened aggression toward dogs that get too close to pups or den sites.

“The majority of dog owners that I have seen…are morons, countless owners take their dog up to “play” with the coyotes…can you put up signs encouraging people to haze the stupid dog owners as well?”

Dog owners should never let their dog play with or chase coyotes. Coyote has earned its “trickster” reputation for many reasons. One is its ability to trick dogs into thinking they’re on a play date only to find the whole thing was a set up for an aggressive ambush by one or more coyotes. No matter how big your dog is, it is no match for a family group of coyotes. As some pet owners know all too well, coyote’s “top dog” behavior is not limited to open space. Unattended dogs left in backyards can also be perceived as direct competition for a local coyote’s food or territorial resources. Fences mean nothing to a coyote if it is feeling threatened by the presence of a domestic dog. Don’t take any chances with your best friend. Make sure you supervise backyard time, particularly at dawn, dusk and through the wee hours of the night. It may seem like a burden, but it is always better to be safe than sorry.

Coyote Savvy Concept #2: Which Came First, Coyotes or People?

“THE COYOTES WERE HERE FIRST…LEAVE THEM ALONE AND THEY WILL LEAVE YOU ALONE.”

“Coyotes need places to live since humans keep developing land where animals were living.”

“I feel we’re intruding on their territory, not the other way around.”

“They were here first. This is their land.”

“I hate coyotes, period. They’re too big a predator to be tolerated in a city.”

While there is no question that coyotes lived and thrived on the Colorado Front Range long before humans colonized it, the research community largely agrees that the presence of people has made being a coyote a bit easier in many important ways. The best thing humans did for the coyote was eradicate wolves, which are the only animal known to successfully manage coyote populations. With the absence of wolves and the addition of rich, irrigated landscapes with fruit trees and locally abundant rabbits, squirrels and mice, many note that urban coyotes live lives of luxury and excess far beyond the wildest dreams of their shortgrass prairie-scrabbling ancestors. If you look at it through the eyes of an incredibly opportunistic and flexible creature like the coyote, humans may have invaded the coyote’s original territory, and we have arguably improved upon it in some key ways.

Coyote Savvy Concept #3: Humans Have a Direct Role in Reducing Coyote Conflict

“My impression is that most conflict is human-created.”

“Education is the best way to preserve these animals in such an urban area.”

Regardless of how you feel about coyotes, knowing more about them, their behavior and ecology in urban environments can reduce your chances of experiencing direct conflict with them. Simple acts of stewardship like keeping your pet leashed, supervising your pet in the yard and keeping cats indoors, particularly at night, are a great start. Taking care not to inadvertently feed coyotes by leaving pet food and water out or leaving food scraps in parks is another way to do your part in coyote conflict mitigation. Taking a moment to scare coyotes away that come too close, engage you, or enter your backyard is a more active way to help reduce conflict. I think this survey respondent said it best, “Being cautious and aware, along with exercising a little common sense has served me well.”

Copyright © 2014 Mary Ann Bonnell