Despite a political rebuff from the Rossmoor Homeowners Association, the Rossmoor Predator Management Team puts on a happy face and moves on. Their monthly report for October identifies more pet killings, and the county says storm drain grates are on their way. Meanwhile, the homeowners association plans to start trapping.
At their regular meeting last month, the Rossmoor Homeowners Association addressed two items regarding coyotes in Rossmoor. First, the RHA decided – with great caution and timidity – to tentatively move forward with trapping coyotes in Rossmoor. After they manage their way through all kinds of legal and bureaucratic hurdles, eventually there might be some trapping in Rossmoor.
Certain RHA Board members expressed concerns about who would bear legal responsibility for the trapping. The county, under assistance from Supervisor John Moorlach’s office, has agreed to “manage the trapping contract”, but nobody knows exactly what that means. Specifically, who will be on the hook if something goes wrong – the county or the homeowners association.
RHA board members also were concerned that trapping might generate negative publicity from animal rights advocates. In the end, it appears they decided the potential negative publicity from something much more serious might be even worse, so they agreed to put up $5,000 for the trapping.
However, there might be a hitch in this $5,000. About $1,200 of the total was supposed to come from funds donated to the Rossmoor Predator Management Team, RPMT, in response to that group’s coyote danger publicity campaigning. That’s where the second coyote related item was acted upon by the RHA and small town politics enters the scene.
Until last month’s RHA meeting, the RPMT presented itself as operating under the RHA. That was then, this is now. When it came down to spending money and potentially signing contracts – which the RHA appeared rather inclined to avoid – the homeowners group gave the predator management group the brush off.
Among other things, the RHA wanted to vet the external communications from the RPMT. Since the RPMT has been very effective at getting external media attention, including the attention of OC180NEWS, it is not surprising that when the RHA wanted to control the RPMT’s media activities, they said thanks, but no thanks. As a result, the RPMT included the following in their October newsletter:
“The RPMT has decided to return to independent community group status to focus on multiple safety issues of Rossmoor. The RHA and the RPMT will maintain a strong working relationship and jointly work together for the best interests of the community in keeping it safe for kids and pets. RHA will continue to house RPMT on their website as well as refer coyote activity. Members of the RPMT will join RHA’s committee for pet safety and wildlife issues.”
In our book, that’s euphuistic code for “she dumped you.”
A little back story here might be helpful. The RPMT is essentially the efforts of Rebecca and Dave Lara and photographer Ron Singer. They sprung into action back in May when people became alarmed at the increasing pet killings by coyotes. As far as is known by OC180NEWS, the RPMT is not a formally organized entity – such as a typical 501 c(3) non-profit.
As the work of the RPMT became better known throughout the community, the pet killings increased, and nobody else seemed to be willing to do much about it, residents started giving the group donations to do trapping or whatever protective work made sense.
At this point in our story, the RPMT was still operating under the auspices of the RHA, so the checks for donations were made payable to that organization. About $1,200 was donated in this manner and this was part of the $5,000 the RHA allocated to pay for the trapping. But, when the RPMT got the cold shoulder from the RHA, at least one donor stopped payment on their donation check. We expect there will be more discussion of this matter at the next RHA meeting.
Meanwhile, because of the relentless prodding by the RPMT and the leadership provided by Supervisor John Moorlach, Orange County public works department is moving forward with installing protective grates on some of the storm drains through which the coyotes enter Rossmoor.
Supervisor Moorlach’s office release the following message:
“The installations will occur in the outlets just west of the 605 Freeway since those outlets are positioned in the most favorable locations for grates of this type. This will provide the best long-term prevention for coyotes entering the community via the channels. However, since these locations were selected, they are not positioned to quell any increase in coyote movement (of those coyotes that still may reside in the Caltrans property east of the freeway) once Caltrans starts work out there. Our hope is that the traps will be in place by then.”
The traps referred to are those to be paid for by the RHA and “managed” by the county. While this might eventually move forward, it still appears to be at least weeks, if not months in the future. The statement from Supervisor Moorlach continues:
“For people in the community wondering why these outlets were chosen, it comes down to an engineering decision. The outlets west of the freeway can sustain grates that simply fall into the channel during a significant rain event (although they have to be released manually and they will have hinges at the bottom to prevent them from being carried away). Had they been placed east of the freeway, it would have required a completely different and much more costly design.”
As for the coyote activity in October, the RPMT – which is the only organization either in government or not to actually track the predator’s activity – issued their October report on Wednesday, November 3, 2010. While coyote pet killings continue in Rossmoor, the anticipated inward coyote migration caused by the habitat disruption resulting from the 605 freeway project has not happened because construction has not yet started.
According to the Rossmoor Predator Management Team, in October there were 8 reported sightings of coyotes in Rossmoor, 9 pet killings, and 1 pet attack which did not result in the death of the pet.
The RPMT reported that the October activity brought the totals FROM MAY, 2010 when the group started accumulating data, to 47 Reported Sightings; 12 non-fatal pet attacks; and 29 reported pet Killings.
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About Dolores Barr, Publisher
Dolores Barr has lived in Rossmoor since 1992 and has created this site to provide local news for the people of Los Alamitos, Seal Beach, Rossmoor, Leisure World, Sunset Beach, and Surfside, California. My husband and I have had two students graduate from the Los Alamitos Unified School District and currently our Grandson, Ricky Apodaca, grade 3 at Weaver Elementary, is actively involved in youth baseball through LAYB and youth football through FNL.
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