Residents sound off, urge action at Belvedere coyote forum
Updated: Jul 16
Editor’s note — This article won fifth place for best coverage of local government in the California News Publishers Association’s 2023 California Journalism Awards.
Belvedere has vowed to act swiftly to develop a more comprehensive plan to manage aggressive coyotes after hearing from nearly three dozen residents at a Feb. 16 community forum, many of whom said they’re fed up with feeling threatened and some even advocated for shooting particularly aggressive coyotes.
Residents packed City Hall — and nearly 100 more watched online — to hear from wildlife experts from Marin Humane, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, nonprofit Project Coyote and the University of California Cooperative Extension.
After hearing requests for action, the City Council directed staff to pursue a plan that includes reaching out to the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services to see how they might help deal with aggressive coyotes; creating a draft wildlife-management plan; and investigating programs that work to eliminate unintentional coyote food sources. The city will also gather information from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife on the types of traps available and rules for dispatching animals, and it will work on removing any dead brush that could serve as habitat and pose a fire threat.
Councilmember Sally Wilkinson called the issue a complicated one.
“We’ve been hearing from residents, and we have taken those first steps … late last year to really try to educate around hazing,” she said. “Maybe we have not done enough on that front, but it really feels like it hasn’t been working and, in my mind, this is a public-safety threat that we face.”
Belvedere Island resident Mike Rowe said during the forum residents have been “jumping out of our skins over here as we listen to the casualness with which a lot of this has been addressed.”
“I’m looking at my Ring camera right now and there is a coyote sitting in my yard right now,” he said. “We’ve got a 15-pound dog who is on the menu.”
Rowe said he encountered a coyote three nights prior and had to kick it in the head to get it to leave him and his dog alone.
“It shot out of the bush, it ran for our dog, I kicked the thing and it stood there and looked at me. I picked up the dog and left,” he said. “Honestly, we’ve been talking about how to prevent a fire when our house is burning. It’s happening right now, and the time to catch up is yesterday.”
Residents for nearly a year have been seeking solutions for increasingly aggressive coyotes, which ramped up last fall with reports of attacks on family pets, worries about walking alone at night or on trails and that standard hazing attempts to intimidate the animals and scare them away aren’t always working.
The city began offering free hazing kits and, in December, the council considered a pitch by the Police Department to shoot aggressive coyotes with paint balls to mark and track them for data collection on potential management solutions.
Officials tabled that idea as impractical and sought to start with the community forum, stressing the need to work with experts to develop an appropriate response that fits Belvedere’s geography and urban setting.
Police call data shows that since summer, there have been about 70 reported coyote incidents or sightings. While December and early January saw a decrease in reports, which may be linked to colder weather and scarcity of food, recent pet attacks in late January seem to indicate that trend is reversing, according to police Chief Jason Wu.
He also said residents have reported that traditional hazing methods aren’t affecting coyotes.
Many residents have called for trapping and relocating the coyotes, though — backed by wildlife science — relocation’s against state law, and state Fish and Wildlife officials have said they won’t intervene unless a coyote attacks a human.
There have been no reported attacks on people.
Ken Paglia, a spokesperson with the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, stressed that coyotes have adapted to urban settings, and it’s not feasible to remove them because research has shown that if you take a coyote away, it can actually return to its home base. Without the ability to euthanize or relocate, trapping would require release on site.
But several residents have called for sharpshooters to kill aggressive coyotes after media reports of a New England community much like Belvedere seeking help from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
“The snipers need to come in and shoot them,” said West Shore resident Brian Davis, who made coyote management a core issue of his unsuccessful bid for the council last November.
While the U.S. Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services can use fatal control methods, it mainly specializes in killing wild animals that threaten livestock.
In Mercer Island, Washington, last February, Wildlife Services experts located and euthanized two coyotes that were displaying increased comfortability around humans and homes, according to the city. Wildlife Services has a seven-point scale for measuring aggressiveness in the animals, and it recommends coyotes be killed when at point five on the scale, which is attacking animals when people are present — a major policy difference from California Fish and Wildlife.
Belvedere resident Paul Rosenlund agreed with Davis. He said he was walking his dog last year when a coyote ran at them. He and his dog got away, but in doing so he tripped and hurt himself. He said he’s stopped taking his dog for walks and instead lets the dog out to the yard, where it was also attacked by a coyote.
“At this point, they have to be shot,” Rosenlund said.
But others disagreed.
“You may be really angry and upset and in fear and not happy with the way you’re living right now, but you have to think about, are you going to get results from killing animals?” said Tiburon resident Robyn Newkirk. “The answer is probably not, they’re probably still going to be there, so I think we need to start from the root of the problem, which is getting rid of the attractants.”
Mayor Jim Lynch said he’d like the city to look into unintentional coyote food sources, such as bird seed or berries. Resident Dayle Burnes said locals may be unintentionally feeding coyotes from their garbage cans and suggested the city contact Mill Valley Refuse Service to see if they can provide more secure cans.
Experts on the Feb. 16 panel agreed, saying that as long as the island continues to offer food and water resources, coyotes will come and settle down. They stressed management programs as the way to go.
Residents, for example, can make their homes less attractive to coyotes by removing any pet food, water, bird seed and fallen and low-hanging fruit and eliminating shelter and den opportunities under brush. They can also try adding automatic sensor lights and automatic sprinklers to their yards as tools to scare them off.
Alex Heeren with Fish and Wildlife helps run a community-engagement program focused on training city volunteers to remove coyote attractants and haze the animals. Through the program, Heeren also helps guide cities through the process to create and adopt a wildlife-management plan.
The city of Davis, for instance, has a plan that includes public education and outreach, coyote complaint investigation and response and an attack-response plan.
Belvedere resident Tracey Paull last month started a petition urging the city to remove aggressive coyotes using all means possible as allowed by state law and to engage in a meaningful education campaign on how to properly haze them. She said she was prompted to take action after an aggressive coyote attacked her pug, Winnie, in January as she and a neighbor sat just 5 feet away. She and the neighbor screamed, and the coyote dropped the dog, which had to be treated for three puncture wounds.
The incident left her and her family “traumatized,” she said. The petition had 379 signatures as of The Ark’s press deadline.
Lisa Bloch, director of marketing and communications for Marin Humane, stressed the need to be consistent with hazing methods: Coyotes aren’t going to get the message from just one whistle blow or one clap of the hands, she said.
She noted where she lives in Mill Valley, she sees a lot of people walking around with air horns.
“We really have to get very aggressive in hazing them and really being vigilant about the garbage; it’s a big attractant,” Bloch said.
She said coyotes normally want to avoid humans, but they’re opportunistic — if they see a cat or a small dog they think is vulnerable, they will use that opportunity to try to catch them.
Bloch said dog walkers who come across a coyote need to haze it, and small dogs should be picked up by their owners.
If a dog is attacked, owners should pull on its leash to get them into their arms. Otherwise, defend them in any way possible, including kicking and screaming.
Bloch said she knows it’s heartbreaking to lose pets to coyote attacks and noted Belvedere isn’t alone in dealing with the animals.
She said she thinks people should try to adjust their thinking — which can be hard, she acknowledged — to keep cats indoors and to keep an eye on small pets and not let them go outside by themselves.
“We wouldn’t have gotten to that point if it weren’t for that fact that unfortunately there have been people who feed coyotes, who leave their pet food out all day, who don’t have their garbage secured so coyotes have learned over the years that, ‘If I go closer to a home, I might be able to find pet food on the ground or dropped fruit or garbage,’” Bloch said.
However, Marin Human largely tries to stress coexistence, which Bloch said she knows can be challenging. She pointed out coyotes provide benefits to the environmental landscape, as well.
“They are native to this area,” she said. “They kill a bunch of rodents (and) they’re omnivores, so they eat vegetation as well.”
Paglia, with state Fish and Wildlife, echoed her comments.
“We understand there is conflict, but we have to make small adjustments to coexist with wildlife,” he said.
Reach Belvedere and public-safety reporter Katherine Martine at 415-944-4627.