An image from Long Beach Animal Care Service’s coyote-activity map for 2019 as of July 24. The colored squares indicate reported coyote activity, with blue representing low-level incidents of coyote sightings, yellow representing moderate-level incidents of habituated coyote presence and orange indicating high-level incidents of coyote aggression, potentially involving domestic-animal loss. Red would mark a coyote attack on a human, though no such incidents have been reported so far this year.
During its July 23 meeting, the Signal Hill City Council heard from Long Beach Animal Care Services (LBACS) on how to safeguard against local coyotes. The council also conducted a public hearing and approved an annual levy increase for landscape maintenance in Signal Hill’s California Crown tract.
Coyote control
After hearing from concerned residents, the council invited LBACS Director Staycee Dains to explain how to handle urban wildlife, coyotes in particular.
Dains said that LBACS offers animal-care services in Signal Hill, though the city is not covered by Long Beach’s 2015 coyote-management plan.
“Wildlife is always a challenge in any urban area,” she said, adding that citizens can prevent wildlife from taking up residence on properties by limiting access to food, shelter and water.
“The call that I actually get the most is the koi pond that no longer has koi in it because it fed all of the raccoons in the area,” she said.
Dains advocated picking up fallen tree-fruit, which even coyotes will eat, and feeding pets inside.
“Coyotes are scavengers, so they’re going to eat the easiest thing,” she said. “Sometimes the easiest thing is the cat food; sometimes the easiest thing is the cat.”
She said it might take coyotes many times to stop coming by for cat food if they have eaten it once at a location. For feeding cats outside, Dains advised only dry food and for the resident to stay, watch pets eat and then remove the food.
She said simply dumping cat food on sidewalks creates a nuisance, though there is no specific municipal code against feeding pets outdoors.
“Coyotes are very adaptable animals,” she said. “They are particularly smart and their behavior evolution is really, really fast.”
Dains also suggested tightly shutting refuse bins, securing pet doors, clearing shrubbery and locking garages and sheds.
Coyote
In the wild, coyotes are mostly active during twilight hours but that’s because it’s when food is available, Dains said. In urban settings, access to food– such as cat food or an open dumpster– is available any time, so residents may see them during the daytime.
She also said that coyotes are currently protecting their babies born in spring, which stay with them for nine months and so they may be more aggressive and prevalent until the end of the year.
If a resident encounters a coyote, they should haze the animal by yelling, waving arms and stomping feet until the coyote goes away, but not before, Dains said.
“You have to do that until the coyote goes away,” she said. “If it learns to not be afraid of you when you’re being demonstrative, that is also a problem.”
She also advised against feeding coyotes– or any wildlife– as if they were pets because they could get aggressive.
She added that owners shouldn’t leave out poison, which is illegal, and not to allow pets to interact with coyotes.
“If a coyote is sick or has rabies and it bites your pets, your pet will have to be quarantined for at least six months,” Dains said. “Keep a real good separation between wildlife and […] pets.”
If a coyote attacks a person, Dains said that residents should call the Calif. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife for help at (858) 467-4201.
“By the time there is an attack on a person, however, that coyote has become habituated,” she said. “Unfortunately, there’s not a lot of resources for folks for coyotes to be trapped up and removed. There’s not anywhere for them to go. They were born here.”
Discourage coyote interaction with humans and their pets is therefore the best recourse, Dains said. LBACS does not provide removal or a lethal option unless there is a clear and present danger, such as a coyote harming or killing an animal or person.
But she said people can contact private trappers, who are subject to state laws.
People should also report coyote sightings to LBACS at (562) 570-7387, Dains said, adding that LBACS doesn’t track reports from social-media sites such as Nextdoor or second-hand information.
She said residents can find out more at the Calif. Dept. of Fish and Wildlife website at wildlife.ca.gov and the LBACS website at longbeach.gov/acs/wildlife.
“It’s up to all of us to make sure that we’re keeping the wildlife wild by not providing them with food, shelter and water,” she said.
California Crown
After conducting a public hearing and receiving no objection, the council approved a resolution to increase a landscape-maintenance assessment for the California Crown tract of Signal Hill.
The approved annual increase is based on the consumer-price index (CPI), which for 2018 was 3.806%.
The 95 parcels in the area will pay a total of $62,348 during the city’s 2019-2020 fiscal year, though the operating budget is $70,000. The deficit of $7,652 will be covered by a reserve fund, which currently holds $64,400, Sara Russo, public-works management analyst, said.
Director of Public Works Kelli Tunnicliff said that once the reserve dwindles to about 50% of budget then staff will consider a voter-approved assessment increase, as allowed by state Proposition 218.
She said that a new landscape-maintenance contract approved in 2017 was about $9,000 higher than the previous contract because the community wanted better maintenance for its slopes, hence the deficit.
City Manager Charlie Honeycutt said that over the 27 years of the neighborhood’s special landscape-maintenance arrangement with the city, the latter has a done a good job of managing contract costs.
“Costs have escalated and that’s why you’re seeing this deficit now,” he said. “Our intent is to come back, do a Prop-218 hearing to reestablish a base assessment and, obviously, work with the homeowners in that neighborhood to do that.”
Presentations
Frank McIlquham and Alex Rothwell, vice presidents of the Signal Hill Chamber of Commerce, presented on how their organization can help local businesses.
McIlquham said the chamber began in 1942 and offers a network for businesses, residents, community members and local government in and around the city.
The chamber currently consists of 140 businesses, meeting on the second and fourth Thursdays of each month, he said.
Rothwell said membership dues are assessed per individual but also tiered for businesses with multiple employees. She encouraged companies to become sponsoring “Chamber Champions” to help other organizations, joining current sponsors Signal Hill Petroleum, EDCO, Kaiser and Southern California Edison.
Mayor Lori Woods presented a Sustainability Award on behalf of the Sustainable City Committee to Nick White of HARBRO Emergency Services and Restoration for his company’s installation of two solar carports on its site at 2750 Signal Pkwy.
Woods said that the company, which has been in business since 1961, installed 324 solar panels over 30 parking spaces, generating 90 kilowatts of power.
“Through their commitment to renewable energy,” she said, “HARBRO has demonstrated leadership in sustainable practices.”
The next Signal Hill City Council meeting will take place Tuesday, Aug. 13, at 7pm in the council chamber at 2175 Cherry Ave.
The coyote plan is an animal rights plan. This plan protects the coyotes and subjects tax payers, voters, their pets and children to attack, mutilation and death by coyote attack. These dangerous predators must be removed. The USDA will send in federal trappers to remove them and keep them removed. Public safety must come first and a city official that ignores public safety in order to collude with animal rights activists is derelict in their duty and needs to be removed at once.
The last U.S. census in 2010 shows that CA is still over 80% open land. Plenty of habitat for the coyote to thrive.
In the past 20 years, a dramatic reversal of an encroachment process has occurred: coyotes are actually encroaching on our habitat, and they are doing so at an unprecedented rate. In metropolitan areas, predominately human habitat, we have created safe, superior habitat for them. They aren’t forced to live among us – they choose to live among us. Therefore, we (i.e., property owners, city administrators, wildlife professionals) should be dictating where and how coyotes live, not vice versa.
At some point, we need to draw a line on the asphalt and warn coyotes that they are now entering “people country”
California Crown residents started paying $9000 more for better landscaping in 2017 and that is when the landscaping completely STOPPED on the slopes. The previous landscape company did a far better job for far less money, I would see them working hard in the easements every week.
The current contractor, Brightview has allowed the upper easements to become overgrown to the point that easement plants are growing into our yards and a large den of coyotes is thriving just outside our fences. I haven’t seen a Brightview employee in that easement in many months.
The city council shouldn’t be raising rates without a clear plan to do something about the overgrown landscaping and the coyotes that moved into the easement because of it. Brightview shouldn’t be rewarded with more money for their shoddy work.
What is it going to take? A child being bitten or killed, a Senior Citizen walking their dog attacked? More and more loved family pets being destroyed horribly in front of the owners eyes, before anyone decides enough is enough? We can have study after study, meeting after meeting, discussion after discussion and the only thing constant is the wild predator living among us, the coyote. Make no mistake, this is a wild animal, who kills to live. Does anyone honestly think they will stop at pets? Right now pets are easy prey, because no city cares about them or their tax paying owners, so they are expendable.. but these same tax payers are getting very very tired of hearing the same excuses year after year.. cities need to step up to the plate and eradicate the many coyotes living and hunting in populated neighborhoods, being seen on school grounds, stalking children and adults before the unthinkable happens, and until and unless something is not done soon, it will happen…and the guilty, neglectful city will be sued for a whole lot of money, and wish they had done what they should have years ago. Its very simple, trap and euthanize those coyotes living in populated neighborhoods where they have no right to be no matter what anyone says. They are wild meat eating predators and should go. Thank you.
Coyotes and wildlife were here before us. Yes measures should be taken to keep the public safe but euthanizing them is not humane. You live on a hill, it’s a shared space for humans and wildlife we invaded their territory first. Learn to live harmoniously and take the necessary precautions.