PagesIn 2002 a woman in North County was attacked by a pack of coyotes while walking on a trail. Since that time, a growing number of reports have come in regarding attacks on leashed pets, invasion of yards and homes and even attacks on humans. One has to wonder if there is not a strong correlation between the boxing in of the habitats by road and highway construction, and the growing unrest of coyote and other wildlife in our area.
While the coyote is not on the Federal Endangered Species list, he is becoming a problem in the North County area. Reports from La Costa and Carlsbad residents have the coyote described as increasingly more aggressive toward humans and more desensitized regarding human habitation. Much of this can be laid at the feet of the humans themselves, for feeding the coyotes. The coyote is a predator, and when it finds a source of food, he is intelligent enough to work out further means of exploitation regarding that resource. Also, leaving a bowl of food on the back porch for the coyote and leaving a leashed pet is basically the same thing, as far as the coyote is concerned. Food is food.
Currently researchers from San Diego State University are evaluating the Habitat Plans setup in San Diego. The City of San Diego began the planning process for what became the Multiple Species Conservation Plan (MSCP) in 1991 as mitigation for a large-scale sewer upgrade. The MSCP is a long range, regional development and conservation plan in San Diego that also serves as a habitat conservation plan (HCP), resulting in the issuance of Section 10 incidental take permits (ITPs) for the covered species. The MSCP was approved in 1997.
An HCP, Habitat Conservation Plan is the creation of Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act. In 1983 Congress adopted Section 10 of the Endangered Species Act as a way to promote “creative partnerships between the public and private sectors and among governmental agencies in the interest of species and habitat conservation.” Section 10 authorizes states, local governments, and private landowners to apply for an Incidental Take Permit for otherwise lawful activities that may harm listed species or their habitats. To obtain a permit, an applicant must submit a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) outlining what he or she will do to “minimize and mitigate” the impact of the permitted take on the listed species.
Habitat conservation plans are supposed to balance property rights and protection of endangered animals, often with developers restoring or setting aside some wild lands for vanishing species while bulldozing others. The strategy is sweeping the country, embraced by prominent Democrats and Republicans, big-scale developers and leading conservation groups. All say the program keeps the economy running smoothly while preventing further declines in the populations of some of the planet’s rarest creatures.
That is, of course, if it works, which is why the researchers are out checking up on how the changes made by San Diego are affecting the conservation of the coastal sage scrub habitat, and the species protected by Federal and California Endangered Species Acts. The last check up was in 2001, which received a clean bill of health from the researchers, including Shea Valero and Sierra Hayden.
Currently the team includes Andrew Bohonak and Shea Valero, who are finding that the status is not as good as it was. Part of the plan in San Diego was the construction, and maintenance, of Wildlife Corridors. These areas are land bridges or tunnels which allow wildlife to migrate from one area to another. This research team is finding choke points now, such as the underpass near the merge of I5 and 805 south of Del Mar, A fenced land bridge across Highway 94 in southern San Diego County and the underpass at Highway 52 near Mission Trails Regional Park. It is known now that deer are not using the I5/805 under pass, though there are some signs of them using the other two.
The theory right now is that all of the construction around the freeway since 2001 has negated the effectiveness of the corridors, which could have an extreme impact on the endangered species living in that area. Another problem with wildlife not using these corridors is that other animals such as the coyote do not use them either, since predators tend to stay with the herding animals. It has been commented on by several sources that the growing population of coyote in San Diego County may be less of a ‘population growth’ and more of a condensing of the population at hand. The county’s $50 million project to widen Valley Center Parkway, for example, has blocked animals from moving between Daley Ranch and the underdeveloped land around Valley Center to the east.
Posted by Glenn Hefley in Example-News Story
