Rossmoor News bemoans the trampling presence of media onto their private woodpecker shooting party. They feel the permit obtained through Fish & Game was a last resort by very beleaguered property owners who had spent 170,000 dollars dealing with this problem in the past decade. They had painstakingly tried nonlethal methods including squirt guns and mechanical spiders. Why didn’t the media understand that shooting nearly three score of these birds is the only option?

The article also makes sure to point fingers at those pesky beaver lovers.

The News published three letters from residents upset about the woodpeckers being shot. The Martinez women, whose mother lives in Rossmoor, read the letters and contacted the outside press, according to the reporters. The reporters said that the woman is the president of Worth a Dam, an organization that spent a year saving the Martinez beavers.

For the record, the president of Worth A Dam’s mother does not live in Rossmoor, she lives in the Sierras where pileated woodpeckers sometimes grace her porch. The member of worth a dam whose mother lives in Rossmoor does not herself live in Martinez. Beyond this confusion it might behoove Rossmoor to do a head count of how many residents of Rossmoor are active members of the audobon society or volunteers at the Lindsay Museum. It is not the environment where these things happen without notice, regardless of some pesky beaver people.

The goodnews is that all the unwanted media scrutiny has slowed down the process and given some smart minds room to suggest real solutions. Mt Diablo Audobon Society reports that there will be a task force meeting between the permit holders and Audobon appointees.

Troubled by pesky criminial prosecutions? Here’s some problem solving Shakespeare-style. Contrary to the modern misunderstanding that this references frivolous lawsuits as the problem with modern society, Dick’s advice to Cade in Henry IV part 2 is much more elemental: Bothered by the consequences of breaking the law? Then kill all the lawyers (and if you don’t believe me, ask Pakistan).

I’m thinking that Rossmoor must have had their “problem solving for Dummies” book open to the Shakespeare/Machiavelli page, because in their most recent news story they offer the following “longterm” solution to their acorn problem.

One long-term option is to work on limiting the acorn production of the trees. This can possibly be done with a spray-on solvent and by heavy pruning.

I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.

The grand solution-eers of the gated community, with the entire Mount Diablo Audobon Society at their disposal, and a host of contractors willing to pitch in and help out, have offered a solution of chemically treating the trees to reduce woodpecker population. The mind was already reeling at their decision to hire a sharpshooter, now it has dropped like a stone into the abyss.  Birth Control for Oak trees? Why not cut down the offending bird-accomplises altogether? You’ll have a much better view of your gates without all those pesky natural obstructions.

This is akin to killing all the salmon to control the grizzly population, or stopping tourism to St. Marks square to limit the pigeon population. This is as bad an idea as any we have heard from the Martinez City Council and that’s saying something. Does anyone bother to worry that there might be other creatures dependent on the acorns? Or that a sudden decrease in available food might increase storing operations before it decreases them?

(I guess we can be thankful that the technology wasn’t available back when we were dealing with that pesky “native american” problem).

Property managers and architects everywhere know exactly why this problem has happened. The solution isn’t to kill the woodpeckers or eliminate the acorns or shoot the media. It doesn’t cost 170,000 dollars either.  The problem is the “synthetic stucco” (and if by synthetic you mean pretend, I think the name is perfect). Its longer name is Exterior Insulation and Finish System or EIFS for short. It has so many problems that it even has a legal defense network for disgruntled homeowners. Water damage behind the facade is a more widespread problem than acorns, but there are many reasons to avoid this material, and just as many to invest in its replacement. Do your homework and find a real solution.

One of my favorite moments at the famous November 7th meeting came after about an hour of public comment. A woman approached our city manager directly and pointed out the remarkable solutions offered by an audience of lay-people who had all spent thirty minutes on the internet researching solutions. She referenced our hard work and asked with genunine inquiry, “What have you done to research the problem?” Had he learned about any of the tools or problem-solving devices we discussed? He wriggled like a man uncomfortably far from his vacation and said that they hadn’t thought they would work in this setting.  Her response was amazing. It took my breath.

“But you knew about them? You knew about these options and you didn’t present that information to us?”

This remarkable Perry Mason moment is probably what inspired an early retirement for our City Manager, and he quickly redirected her question towards the council to deflect her attention. With two short questions she had highlighted the fact that (as Mulder would say) “The truth is out there“, and that people who are paid to offer solutions should bother finding it. I hope that woman has a mother or aunt at Rossmoor to ask the same question of their Board.

To paraphrase Dr. Seuss once more:

From there to here, from here to there, stupid things are everywhere!

He would not listen to advice

I said it very loud and clear

I went and shouted in his ear.

Lewis Carrol

All the very best efforts of the Audubon Society and the Humane Society has done nothing to convince the Rossmorons that they must have their sacrifice of 50 acorn woodpeckers. Dennis Cuff reports in wednesday’s CC times that heads will role depite consultation of a major acorn woodpecker expert at UCBerkeley who says

“Killing the woodpeckers is a shortsighted and very short-term solution,” Eric Walters, an acorn woodpecker specialist at UC Berkeley’s Hastings nature reserve in Carmel Valley, wrote in an e-mail to the Times this week. “Unless they plan to wipe out the entire acorn woodpecker population, shooting birds is not going to do a darn thing to stop the damage to their retirement community.”

The Audobon society pledged to pay for Walters to come out and consult, and to provide materials for an artificial granary. Apparently the spirit of cooperation conveyed by their joint meeting with the property owners meant very little.

Diana Granados, chairwoman of a Mount Diablo Audubon task force on woodpeckers, said the shooting plan will fail because it will upset the unusual family structure of the acorn woodpecker, which typically limits breeding to two females in a group with other members sharing baby-sitting and feeding duties. If the females are killed, other birds will start breeding to offset the losses, Granados said.

In an update email received earlier this week, Diana wrote that the property owners had tersley instructed Laura Simon of HSUS to “send no more emails” about sparing the dastardly fiends. The feds were coming for Christmas and bringing their rifles with them. They were going to shoot them some ‘peckers and there was no use complaining. Twice “4 and twenty red and black birds baked in a pie”. There would be no mercy,

Just remember, ”The Quality of Mercy is Not Strained”.

The Rossmoor woodpecker firing squad is making it very easy to make photoshop fun of them today…I’m starting gently.  In the meantime, concerned residents are asking for calls to city council

Please telephone and ask to speak to as many of the Walnut Creek City Council representatives as you have time to talk to on Thursday, Jan. 29.  Before placing the call, have the list of City Council members so you can ask for each person by name.  Call 925 943 5812.  The person answering may likely require you to leave your name with them and to also provide your call back number to reach you.  Be sure to ask for the name of the person with whom you are leaving your request  so that person knows you are keeping track of the call. Also impress upon them that you are trying to speak to the City Council person about a time sensitive issue and are hoping to speak to the council person the same day.

 

When the Council person calls, tell them that the Rossmoor administration has publicly gone on record that they are going to shoot the woodpeckers at any time now and that because of this, there isn’t time to wait for the next City Council meeting to address this issue.  You would like the City Council official to instruct the City Attorney and Police Chief to tell Rossmoor’s homeowners association and the Golden Rain Board and Foundation that the City police will enforce the City of Walnut Creek gun ordinance and prosecute anyone who knowingly violates it.

The amazing thing is how familiar all this is in some ways. Massive media attention, huge offers of help, and hours of public effort challenged by the narrow minds of a few property owners who aren’t willing to believe there’s a better way. The sad thing is that even if one mutual agrees to suspend the shooting and work with audubon, the other won’t, so the shooting will still trigger the population increase that allows everyone to say “see we tried alternative ideas and it didn’t work!”

It’s so frustrating. Lets try something less subtle:

Scratch any inconvenient wildlife story and you always find the larger selfishness of a few madcap developers, and a city council with comic book dollar signs on their eyes. Turns out the Acorn Woodpeckers of Rossmoor are no exception. February’s issue of Quail (MDAS Audubon Newsletter) is chock full of updates, but this story by Nancy Wenniger, about the history of Rossmoor, really steals the show.

This conflict is the inevitable result of a series of bad decisions. In 1976 the City of Walnut Creek approved an Environmental Impact Report for a conceptual plan for the completion of the Rossmoor community. The EIR listed a number of “unavoidable” adverse impacts to the environment which would occur if 3,500 additional units were allowed to be built by the developer as proposed. Of special interest is the following ecological impact: “Loss of approximately 300 acres of natural vegetation and wildlife habitat, including approximately 135 acres of oak woodland and riparian woodland, which are the most biologically productive of Tice Valley¹s plant communities. This will substantially reduce the plant and animal habitat value of the Tice Valley.” Despite this very significant environmental impact, the build-out was approved.

Did you get that? Buildout approved despite huge environmental impact.

In 1989 UDC Homes submitted its plan for 330 new condominiums in what would be the next-to-last development in Rossmoor. The plan called for massive grading and the removal of 3,100 trees, mostly blue oak and buckeyes.

3100 trees. Wow that’s alot of new space for condos. What could possibly go wrong?

Rossmoor residents, MDAS, the Sierra Club, the California Native Plant Society and Friends of Tice Creek all united in their opposition to the destruction of nearly 36 acres of woodland. They requested that the City require a new or amended EIR to address these very significant impacts which had not previously been adequately considered. City staff and the Planning Commission agreed that the environmental impacts were significant and could not be avoided without a substantial reduction in the size of the project. The Planning Commission also determined that the destruction of trees and habitat was inconsistent with city policies, and they denied UDC¹s permit. However, UDC appealed to Walnut Creek’s City Council.

Developers and concerned residents argue before City Council. Hmm, that sounds familiar. I think I know this story. Don’t tell me how it ends, I can guess.

On May 29, 1990, more than 200 Rossmoor residents and environmentalists attended a marathon meeting. According to an account in the Contra Costa Times, ”Senior citizens booed and hissed for a good portion of the seven-hour hearing, and the City Clerk at one point called police officers to guard against any possible senior citizen disturbances.”

Senior Citizen disturbances? You’ve got to be kidding me. Was someone hit with a cane? The clerk called police officers. Ohhh you mean like the dozen police officers “necessary” to be on hand for our November 7th, 2007 meeting about the fate of the Martinez beavers? Yes, as I recall, the Contra Costa Times reached for its fainting couch in reporting that meeting too. Apparently they aren’t used to cities uttering much more than “Wow that’s the best idea, evah!” and “Please tax me more and tear down my grandpa’s house to build a Staples”.

Rossmoor officials argued persuasively that further delay or denial would have an adverse impact on the Golden Rain Foundation¹s capital funding and harm all Rossmoor residents. UDC had threatened to sue the city for as much as $300 million if the project was denied. So, despite impassioned pleas on behalf of the trees, before adjournment at 3 am the council voted 4­1 in favor of allowing the development to go forward and determined that the environmental impacts had been addressed in the 1976 report. One speaker spoke prophetically when he told the council a decision for the developer would haunt them “for years and years to come.”

That’s some mighty illuminating back story. Puts all those pesky woodpeckers in perspective. The Sierra Club sued and lost, (like us) and the project rolled blindly forward like a tank through a china shop.

The condominiums were built, nestled into the remnants of the oak woodlands. Three-story vertical facades and the poor choice of a foam construction material created an attractive substitute for the granary trees which had been removed. The woodpeckers have responded in an entirely predictable way to the stressors in their environment.

“And that’s why Grandpa needs a shot gun, Timmy.”

Some bedtime story.

Check out the whole newsletter, which is a rollicking good read, especially the part where it tries to mention us and calls us Give A Dam (sheesh!). I wrote Diana and reminded her that despite our sentimentality about beavers, we here in Martinez are a deeply practical people:

We understand our city will never GIVE a dam!

Our Friend Richard Paddock of the LA times continues his smart and savvy reporting on urban wilderness. 22 woodpeckers killed so far at Rossmoor. Fish and Game say they’ll inspect the site to see if the permit is appropriate. Rossmoor says it decided to kill the birds because it didn’t want “outsiders” to make decisions for them.

Does that mean if we all wanted the birds dead they’d be protesting to protect them?

Let’s try the madlibs reference, shall we? (no offense, Richard.)

Headline: (_Boring in on a Woodpecker Controversy)

City name + immature woodpecker pun

The town of (_Rossmoor_) is worried about woodpeckers that have already pecked more

insert name

than (3000 holes in their residences) . Birds haves caused (damage to a dozen homes) and

insert alarming behavior                                                                    insert hyperbole

property owners are concerned it could get worse. Mr.  (_Orum__) who lives in the

Name of rich, selfish man who’s never been outside.

oak woods says that the birds are (_a pain in the neck) and have been making noise and

Verb meaning destroying

.

ruining trim with no end in sight. No one wants to harm the birds but there is

(_170,000 worth of damage_). The city manager, (Mr. Orum who serves on the

Synonym for No Choice

committee seeking to stop the woodpeckers damage) says if the birds must be stopped.

Name of another man who went outide once to hunt.

(Some days, the woodpeckers hammer for hours) The association has contacted

Insert Pandora’s Box remark

(The Department of Fish & Game) for permission to bring in  
Appropriate “wink & nod” Regulatory Body

a (sharpshooter)

Euphemism for exterminator

Just Sayin’….

Having used up California’s noble Fish and Game in securing the right to “shoot” 50 woodpeckers, Rossmoor went after USDA/APHIS for more help in the “Styrofoam Saving Campaign”. Sensitive to the delicate fact that the permit to shoot woodpeckers runs out in two days, the USDA has issued a second “scientific collection” permit to remove 20 more birds next month as well. Perhaps this will allow them to use “enhanced interrogation techniques” on the offending birds, to find out why they chose this particular granary target. Or perhaps the mutual owners have suddenly become researchers and will be sponsoring a large scale avian factor analytic model. We’re told that they agreed to “build” three artificial granaries to the tune of 895/each, spending money on their favorite contractor while Audubon would have done it for free.  The important thing is that USDA agreed with F&G and ruled that that endangered styrofoam needs protecting.

Look for the pied pipers of woodpecker removal to ride in sometime after this month. For more information keep an eye on Cheryl’s blog Bay Area Wildlife or the Mt. Diablo Audubon Society.

The proud Rossmoor community (late of woodpecker-killing fame) has finally displayed their expensive contractor installed “granaries” which in no way resemble the smallest portion of the recommended measures carefully researched and proposed by the Audubon society. Clearly the idea is to pretend to follow the advice of the pesky do-gooders, and then with a shrug of wealthy senior shoulders say, “well I guess grandpa needs to get the shotgun again!” The mutuals involved resisted all advice as controlling meddlesome “audubondage” and rebuffed offers of help from people who know better to march straight for their favored contractor and throw eagerly wasted dollars on this ridiculous program which will assure happy bird killing for years to come.

Savvy Audubon member Brian Murphy offers this snark on their construction:

I was a little worried about Rossmoor encouraging a massive nesting of carpenter bees, but then I remembered that its okay since they probably don’t use actual lumber on their styrofoam facilities either.

I excitedly opened my July issue of Mt Diablo Audubon Society Newsletter: The Quail to check on whether the beaver article I had written had been included. I wanted to spend the morning talking about the delightful connections I had made with audubon since speaking there, but I found that the same issue is plastered with horrific woodpecker headlines that I simply can’t avoid discussing this morning. The beaver story is a bright spot on a very dark horizon, and one that deserves our attention.

When we last visited the story I had told you that the mutuals in question had seen the end of days on their 50 bird-killing permit, and had decided to seek an additional permit, this one from the Department of Agriculture. This allowed the “trapping for scientific research” of 20 additional birds. I had thought this meant they would just be quietly killed off sight, but I had not truly considered the terrifying options in depth.

Audubon pursued the issue with USDA and received back two responses weighed down by their own great respect for their own very high ethical standards. One was from the US Department of Agriculture National Wildlife Services Research Center (NWRC). The other was from the Washington DC and the head of the Ornothological Council who wanted to further defend the very respectable credentials of NWRC scientists. Apparently the very highest ethical standards were applied to the pointless but ethical capture, ethical interstate transport, ethical detention and ethical interference of our acorn woodpeckers. After which time they will be ethically euthanized, or, if they’re lucky, spared to participate in other highly ethical experiments for years to come.

NWRC scientists, with the help of WS Operations field specialists, live-captured 20 acorn woodpeckers from the Rossmoor community in late May. Capture was delayed until after documented egg laying dates by acorn woodpeckers in this region. Care was also taken to not remove birds observed feeding young or sitting on eggs. The birds arrived at the NWRC in Fort Collins, Colorado, on May 27.

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”… is said to be an old Arabian proverb. Wikipedia tells me there is a similar Chinese version which reads “It is good to strike the serpents head with your enemy’s hand”. All this to say that sometimes unusual allies find common ground, which is certainly not news to beaver supporters.

Case in point? When I went on my recent Safari West tour (which you and a loved one can bid on for your VERY OWN at the auction) I learned that the Rhino is actually doing much better in its struggle to avoid extinction because of a little medical wonder called “Viagra”. Apparently the odds of treating an erection problem are much better with modern medicine than with ground up rhino horn, which makes sense.

The past few days have seen alot of woodpecker traffic to the blog, and this morning Gary Bogue gave a huge nod in our direction. Woodgnawers and Woodpeckers are not such strange bedfellows: they are both fun to watch and can have some irritating habits. Apparently they can both also encourage alarmingly stupid thinking in the human species as well.

Our SFEP friend, Lisa Owens Viani, is starting a letter writing campaign about the woodpecker issue, and encourages you to write the hapless Public Affairs woman who was appointed to deal with this debacle.  Here’s mine. She says that APHIS hates bad publicity, so your voice is going to matter. Send your letters or emails to

Gail Keirn, Public Affairs Specialist, U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal & Plant Health Inspection Service, Wildlife Services, National Wildlife Research Center, 4101 LaPorte Avenue, Fort Collins, Colorado  80521-2154. Phone: 970.266.6007. Fax: 970.266.6010. gail.m.keirn@aphis.usda.gov

If you have a few moments leftover and live in the East Bay, she suggests you contact Barbara Lee’s office at (510) 763-0370 or if you’re out this way George Miller (925) 602-1880. Sometimes an advocacy organization gets so large and successful it forgets how to be furious. This issue has certainly shaken Audubon right down to the angry grass roots. Civic cooperation can function as a kind of sleeping pill. I even saw it on a very small scale with the beavers. When the city was dressed up in its cooperative clothes it was so hard to know when to push and when just be grateful for the crumbs. Facing truly outrageous decisions like USDA has helped Rossmoor implement makes things simpler.