Wildlife Not Welcome In Our Town

WILDLIFE NOT WELCOME IN OUR TOWN  

February/March, 2013 issue  
 There  is a village near where I live that boasts a large mill pond. Now,  one  would think that would be a bonus, especially to anyone wishing to  locate  along its banks.  However, the presence of this large pond  resulted in some  amusing phone calls to my office when I used to work  for the conservation  authority.  On one memorable day, I could almost  feel the spittle through the  earpiece on my phone when one new resident  wanted our agency to do something –  today – about those bullfrogs that  kept him awake all night at his new home.  Another one wanted me to  pick up “my” geese that were defecating on his lawn,  refusing to accept  my suggestion that it was his lawn being mowed to the water’s  edge  that was providing a grassed runway for them. Unconvinced, he  steadfastly  maintained that if the geese were picked up and released  somewhere else, this  would be the end of his problem. 
  
 In  more recent years, a resident of a subdivision in Belleville wrote a   letter to the editor demanding that the city do something about the  unwelcome  wildlife that was getting into his garbage overnight. I was  unfamiliar with this  residential area, but it sounded like an upscale  area where no one had a  clothesline and everyone on the same day of the  week mowed their lawn  diagonally. As a rural resident, I am happy that  I don’t have those stresses.  Evidently, this was also an area where  the presence of wildlife was viewed with  contempt and a few residents  were convinced that their unwanted presence was not  their problem, but  the responsibility of the municipality. This resident openly  admitted  that he live trapped a “nuisance animal” every night and released it   north of the city in someone else’s backyard. The thought, however, of  storing  his garbage responsibly overnight had not crossed his mind, so  skunks and  raccoons continued their dubious journeys to new territory. 
  
 As  I explain in my backyard naturalization courses to those who want to   encourage backyard wildlife, the presence and abundance of wildlife can  be  decided by following their four basic needs – food, water, space and  shelter.  Provide one or more of these, and they will come. Work within  the system and one  can either prevent wildlife by not offering those  necessities, or encourage them  by providing a variety of wildlife  shrubs and other attractants. You do not  prevent skunks, raccoons,  groundhogs and foxes from entering your property by  leaving garbage out  overnight, and then expecting city hall officials and  mysterious  agencies to drop what they’re doing and take care of what is   essentially a homeowner’s  “problem”. Again, it is a classic example of   responsibility, or lack thereof, a term that is becoming less  fashionable with  each passing year. The concept of wildlife management  is one I learned back in  Grade 5 in a one room school from a teacher  who was way ahead of her time. And  it is the same principal upon which  sound wildlife management is still based  today.
  
 If  you think this concept of wildlife management is nonsense, think back  to  the two or three squirrels you may have had at your bird feeder one  winter, and  how you decided to live trap them, release them in another  area, and how at the  end of the winter, you had live trapped 55  squirrels, and were still going  strong. Live trapping rarely works, as  Nature refuses to let it work. Wildlife  is constantly on the move,  inhabiting new territory as it becomes available.  Live trapping does  nothing more than accelerate the process, as in Nature, there  is to be  no void, if food and water, space and shelter, are all available.   Wildlife species never exceed the carrying capacity of any given area.  The more  food there is, and the more readily accessible it is, the more  there will be.  Yet, some homeowners continue to live trap, falsely  believing that this is the  end to their problems. Meanwhile, residents  elsewhere are bombarded by a growing  number of groundhogs, raccoons,  skunks and foxes, all thoughtfully being  delivered by urbanites who  feel that wildlife does not fit into their style of  living. 
  
 Live  trapping is not the humane answer that many purport it to be. In   addition to the animals leaving behind scores of starving and unattended  young,  these animals are being unceremoniously dumped in an area  already claimed by  others of their species, and the outcome is not  pretty.
  
 The  answer is responsibility, and seeking information from those   knowledgeable on the subject on how to work within the system and  dissuade those  species that may be unwanted. And contrary to the  soothsayers, any wild animals  present are not predestined to introduce  debilitating diseases, nor are they  purposely seeking out children to  bite and carry off; they are more than happy  to stay out of our way, if  not harassed. 
  
 Furthermore,  if I never get another call from a resident droning on about  Canada  goose problems, it will be too soon. Yet, we see these same people   blithely mowing their grass to the water’s edge and intentionally  providing a  grassed runway for them. Naturalize the shoreline with a  buffer of select shrubs  and ground covers, and the problem goes away.  The problem will not go away by  phoning every agency in the book and  brusquely demanding that someone come and  remove “your” geese. 
  
 It’s  all about taking some time, and doing a little research about any   animal which a resident may be experiencing problems with, and does not  want on  their property. Learn what makes them tick, their likes and  dislikes, and work  within their system to achieve results – not our  system . Our system is not what  it is cracked up to be. Our failures  have become legendary. A simple Internet  Google search will bring up  numerous suggestions that have worked for others,  and it doesn’t  involve live trapping. It involves homeowner responsibility and a  bit  of common sense. 
  
 Subtly suggesting that the animal be trapped and taken downtown to be  released near City Hall, is not a responsible solution.