Taking control of coyotes
How do we best address the coyote crisis in Rossmoor? Clearly, despite the best efforts of Rossmoor volunteers, we have not been able to get the state, through the Department of Fish and Game, or Orange County Animal Control to take any action to trap the problem coyotes.
The best long-term solution is to transfer Animal Control services currently performed by the county and the budget for those services to the Rossmoor Community Services District.
Once this is done, not only will Rossmoor have closer and more responsive animal control services (Rossmoor residents would no longer be required to travel to the shelter in Orange to find lost pets), but would only need to travel to the Long Beach facility on Spring Street), but the RCSD will have the legal authority to manage and trap coyotes. If this transfer were completed, Rossmoor would be able to take direct control of the coyote problem. We need your help. The remains of a cat were found at 10 a.m. Saturday on the front lawn of a Rossmoor resident at Argyle Drive, cross street Gertrude. The remains were found directly across Hopkinson Elementary. Please keep pets inside especially with CalTrans Construction. Coyotes will be seeking food elsewhere now that their homes are being destroyed.
Rossmoor Predator Management Team
Rebecca Lara
When the lights go out
Several weeks ago, the premier of British Columbia, Mr. Gordon Campbell, paid a visit to the California State Legislature in Sacramento. He proposed a green energy partnership to supply California with electricity which would help the state meet its greenhouse gas reduction goals.
Years ago, during the summer when air conditioning spiked electricity demands in California, Washington State and British Columbia would send hydropower down to California. Later in the year when river levels were low in the Northwest, California would return the favor.
Today, California imports 23 percent of its electricity, making it America’s largest electricity importer! This makes California dependant on outside resources to keep its economy vibrant. The situation is exacerbated further by the state’s environmental laws which restrict the construction of additional power plants. Then, limiting the generation of power to renewable sources such as small hydro, geothermal, wind, solar and bio will not meet the demand and is pushing California further into a third world environment of daily “brownouts” and “blackouts.”
So, is British Columbia the answer to our prayers? Premier Campbell is prepared to dam up tree-lined river valleys to generate the power required to become California’s “green” energy resource. Ah, but where politicians are involved there always seems to be an inconsistency!
Like California, British Columbia is suffering long term drought conditions so BC Hydro will be importing $220 million more electricity this year than it did last year. BC Hydro is buying “dirty” power from Washington State and Alberta, Canada, performing some “electron laundering” and selling it to naïve, environmental-centered Californians as pristine “green” hydro power. As they say, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
What is doubly maddening! The politicians in Sacramento are fully aware of this situation and no one asks, “Why not buy the electricity from Washington and Alberta directly and cut out the middle man?” Is it because the “Environmentalists” believe in the BC “fairy tale” about “clean” energy rather than face the “dirty” fact that their lights and computers are on because of coal and nuclear powered generators?
Californians!
It is time to put aside the state moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants signed by then-Governor Jerry Brown in 1976 and to build new facilities that will be safe, clean, efficient and effective in meeting the needs of future California. If we start now it will still take five to seven years to get them on line. If we don’t, we shall see the lights go out and we shall all sit and curse the darkness!
Edmund Rusinek
Rossmoor
