The Burlingame Voice

Fire Suppression the Natural Way

Our wildlife category is growing every month.  Today another local snapped a photo of a herd of goats that are eating up the weeds near Kincaid's out on the bayfront.  Pretty cool.  Anyone else got a lot they need clearing while the goats are in town?

Wildlife Run Amok?

I put the question mark in the title since it is not clear that the wildlife is running amok or just doing what wildlife does.  We have two great pieces to tie together today.  The first is from the Wall Street Journal discussing a problem I have had for years

At one point, “I had like 12 raccoons on one bin trying to get in,” said Ms. MacDonald, an animal behavior researcher who was testing bin prototypes for the city (of Toronto). None succeeded, she said, but “they did try mightily.”

Ms. MacDonald is on the front lines of Toronto’s war on raccoons, which are ubiquitous in the backyards, ravines and alleys of Canada’s largest city. Although their exact number isn’t known, they are accused of ripping up lawns, destroying gardens, and defecating in garages and on rooftops and decks.

The battle between the city’s residents and its backyard wildlife is increasingly playing out over the disposal of organic waste. Residents’ green bins—which the city collects weekly at the curb—offer a smorgasbord for raccoons and have helped their numbers increase. Torontonians say it is tough to keep the bins sealed and the animals away.

The second point is from our very own John Horgan discussing a more disgusting problem

This involves something far more pressing here on the Peninsula: the Canadian goose problem. Surely, you have experienced the slimy depredations produced by this infernal creature, which migrates south from colder climes to linger in the warmer precincts of places like San Mateo County.

Now, however, there might be light at the end of the avian tunnel. Officials in Ottawa are considering something new as they grapple with their goose problem: drones.  It turns out that these remote-controlled aircraft are quite effective in keeping the geese out of areas deemed unfit for their presence. Great.

We will skip the back and forth about whether drones to scare geese is humane or not, but if you have stepped in the stuff often enough, you probably have a point of view on that.  To me, the raccoons are a bigger challenge.  Bungee cording my bins to trees seems to have fooled the B'game bandits but perhaps they will get as smart as the Toronto bandits soon?

 

 

Dog Abuse

This is a weird local story as reported in today's Daily Journal.  I normally wouldn't post it except for two things that make it even weirder

The Peninsula Humane Society is seeking the public’s help in bringing charges against a Burlingame dog sitter who was allegedly caught on camera abusing an animal.

A resident witnessed a neighbor, who runs a dog sitting and boarding business out of her home near Burlingame High School, jerk a cowering dog up by the neck, slam the small dog to the ground and then slap it multiple times while it was pinned to the ground, according to PHS spokesman Scott Delucchi.

The neighbor filmed the incident from a cellphone July 30 and turned it over to the PHS, which is now seeking help in locating the animal. This was not the first time the PHS has received complaints about the woman, but it is the first time the local nonprofit has obtained evidence it now believes will allow prosecutors to file charges, Delucchi said.

Because formal charges have not been filed, the PHS has not yet released the name of the alleged abuser or her business. However, the PHS is seeking the public’s help in both identifying the abused animal and finding other potential victims.

Aside from the really sad part about abusing multiple dogs, who knew you could run a dog boarding business with (it sounds like about 15 dogs at a time) in a single-family residential neighborhood behind BHS?  And how can they find other owners whose dogs may have been abused if they don't release the woman's name?  The description is pretty complete, but without the name, who really knows?

Shopping Trip? Breakfast?

A regular reader forwarded this totally cute photo from this morning on the Avenew.  Could Mom be taking the ducklings out for school supplies?  Or were they just headed for Alana's for some bread crusts and maybe a few pancake scraps?  The sidewalks look pretty good, too!

Russ and I always appreciate a candid local photo-- and it doesn't have to be wildlife.  You can always email me at [email protected] with anything you deem interesting.

Animal Shelter Upgrade

From the Daily Journal we read that

The county will start looking for qualified builders to construct a new $20 million animal shelter on Airport Boulevard to replace its antiquated facility at Coyote Point.  The project at 12 Airport Blvd. is expected to be completed in October 2017, according to Porter’s report.

San Mateo County contracts with the Peninsula Humane Society for its animal control and sheltering services. Animals are processed at the current location at Airport Boulevard and, if or when deemed ready for adoption, moved to the Tom Lantos Center for Compassion, the donor-funded facility that opened in 2011 on Burlingame’s Rollins Road.

Here is the Rollins Rd. facility if you haven't had a chance to go by and see the adoptable pets.

Big Cat

Here is a reminder from the Daily Journal article to pay attention when walking at night locally.  Park school is only three blocks from my dog walking route and mountain lions have a range of 10 to 370 square miles

A mountain lion was seen casually strolling through a residential neighborhood and near an elementary school near the northern border of San Mateo on Friday night, police said.  Police said they were first called to the area of Bellevue Avenue and Clark Drive in the San Mateo Park neighborhood around 10:15 p.m. Friday on a report of a possible mountain lion sighting.

Witnesses told police they had seen the cat walking west on the 100 block of West Poplar Avenue. They described it as weighing around 100 pounds.  Police received a second report around 11:30 p.m. about a mountain lion walking through the campus gate of Park School at 161 Clark Drive, a short distance from the first reported sighting.

Head's up out there!

SF Overlords Deign to Let B'gamers In?

Admit it.  When you are driving down 280 looking at the gorgeous foothills off to the right, you have wondered "can I actually hike through those woods?".  The answer is moving towards "maybe" as the News-Times is reporting here

A proposal to open the 23,000-acre Peninsula Watershed to greater public access is gaining broad support, with the notable exception of environmental groups, who criticize the plan for its potential to damage sensitive animal and plant species. 

Elected officials in San Francisco and San Mateo County, government agencies, hikers and mountain bikers have lined up behind the project, unveiled in February by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns and manages the vast refuge that runs from San Bruno to Woodside above the Crystal Springs reservoirs.

The watershed has been mostly off-limits since the SFPUC bought the property in 1930. The agency long claimed that allowing more people onto the land could threaten wildlife, such as the endangered marbled murrelet, and risk contaminating reservoirs that are key elements of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which serves 2.4 million people in the Bay Area.

Walking on our side along Sawyer Camp Trail is fun and healthy, but the other side looks totally cool.  For once it appears the political animals in EssEff are in line with our local wild life variety pols!

Fall Foliage and Fruit

On this nice rainy Saturday I will take the opportunity to post my annual Fall foliage tribute.  It's been a tough year for our thirsty trees so we will have to see how the Fall colors react.  Some of my favorites like my fruitless mulberry have been struggling to retain their leaves prior to them turning their bright yellow.

But this lovely example did just fine.  I cannot identify the species, but the orange is magnificent.

My neighbor down the street has a very mature persimmon tree that is having a great fruit-bearing year.  He kindly shared a bowlful with me so I just have to wait for them to ripen.  He picked them before the squirrels got them all.

H2 No - Part 3 Following the Hetch Hetchy

The Mercury News-Time has a very interesting front page piece on the drought and its ramifications on wildlife, electricity and people.  It is well worth the read.  Here are a couple of important points stitched together from the piece

Even though it’s first along the river, the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which manages Hetch Hetchy, can’t just take all the water it wants. It is required to release water downstream so irrigation districts in Modesto and Turlock with older claims on the river get the water they are guaranteed.  These mighty districts — whose canals extend for more than 400 miles — sit atop the Tuolumne River’s human pecking order because they made their claim in 1887, under a water rights system that emerged with the early settlement of California known as “first in time, first in right.” Their access to water trumps San Francisco’s. But they rank below the rights of wildlife, which are protected by federal law — a major source of conflict in the region’s age-old fight for water.

And the impact on electricity and revenue

Thirty miles from Hetch Hetchy, it plunges down a 1,000-foot ridge at the tiny town of Moccasin, an old stagecoach stop, where it is funneled into turbines to generate 1.6 billion kilowatt hours of power a year.

As a low-cost, no-pollution energy generator, hydroelectricity is a coveted power source. The Moccasin turbines generate so much energy, with such regularity, that they power much of San Francisco — from Muni buses and schools to the airport and port. Electricity is also sold to irrigation districts and on the open market.

This year’s low flow, however, means less electricity, Ritchie said. Normally, these turbines produce $7.7 million worth of energy to sell to irrigation districts and another $8.3 million on the open energy market. This year, there’s enough to power the city, but the commission expects to sell only $1 million to $2 million to irrigation districts — and nothing else.

If you read almost to the end you will get the story on the salmon impact as well, which we touched on here.  I haven't heard anything about B'game rationing...yet.  Here is the Pulgas Water Temple--our local shrine to H2O.

WAR at San Mateo County Fair

Went to see WAR tonight. I wound up seeing WAR twice. Here is a video of what I saw first. 

 

I think one of these Pygmy goats is named Joe and the other is named Juan. :-)