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April 2021 • ALAMO TODAY & DANVILLE TODAY NEWS • PAGE 1
& APRIL 2021
PREDATORS, PEOPLE, AND PETS: PRESERVING A PRECARIOUS BALANCE
By Jody Morgan
Alamo and Danville residents a re re p or t i n g a surge in sightings of wildlife. The proliferation of motion sensor security cameras captures nocturnal activity that would have been missed a decade ago. Daytime sightings are also on the rise. Coyotes, bobcats, pumas, and foxes Animals like this bobcat, seen at a distance or partially hidden, control rodents and are often mistakenly identified. (Photo courtesy of Greg Cochran) other pests. Delightful to observe in their natural habitat, predators should not be encouraged to lose their innate fear of humans. European settlers with a livestock-dependent lifestyle enlisted Native Americans in disrupting the harmony of ecosystems they'd respected for thousands of years. In the 1500s, Jesuit priests in Southern California offered Native Americans a bounty of one bull for every cougar they killed. In 1661, Plymouth Colony's Court offered “every Indian, who shall kill a wolf, one half a pound of powder and two pounds of shot or lead.” Spotting territorial vacancy signs as larger predators were eliminated, coyotes moved west and east from their original homeland on the Great Plains. In Myths & Truths About Coyotes, Carol Cartaino notes that as of 2010, coyotes occupied a range larger than that of any other wild animal in North America. Cartaino describes the ability of coyotes to adjust the size of their litters, immediately filling unoccupied territories. Offering bounties for killing coyotes has consistently backfired. She notes: “Every state that ever offered a bounty now has more coyotes than it ever had before,” adding, “If three quarters of the entire population of an area were removed every year, after 50 years or so the coyotes there might be significantly diminished or begin to disappear.” Rose Peters Emery, born in 1905, recalled growing up on a 256-acre San Ramon Valley ranch. She writes in Footprints in the Soil, “In those early days of my life, a variety of wildlife still roamed the fields and woodlands, but just as we thought trees were there to be cut and wildflowers to be gathered, animals were there to be killed, as predators or as food.” She never saw a deer on the property. Rabbits were gone by the time she graduated from high school. “Often, at night, before we fell asleep, we could hear the doleful, creepy sound of a coyote’s howl. They were the survivors and lasted much longer than the rabbits." Coyotes travel as much as 10 miles a night in search of sustenance but have
See Wildlife continued on page 22
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Jenise Falk (l) and Mary Verstraete (r) volunteering their time at The Thrift Station.
AN INVALUABLE COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIP CELEBRATES NEARLY 50 YEARS
By Fran Miller
It was five decades ago when members within the Danville Rotary Club founded Discovery Counseling Center (DCC). Concerned about drug use and disconnectedness amongst high schoolers, a group of caring parents and community members pooled resources to hire a counselor, Peter Strauss. Strauss would meet with students as they gathered at the local Foster’s Freeze. He established with them an easy rapport and earned their trust, helping to guide many through challenging times. These same community leaders realized that in order to maintain the services provided by Strauss, they would require proper office space. They turned to church groups and PTAs to help raise additional funds, and from
See Partnership continued on page 19
AIDAN COX, ALAMO ARTIST IN PLYWOOD
By Charlie Jarrett
Last year, Aidan Cox, a San Ramon Valley High School senior, discovered artist Mike Bennett displaying his cleverly conceived cartoon-like artwork in Tik Tok interactive social media videos on the internet. Aidan was utterly fascinated with Bennett’s nearly life-sized cartoon characters, crafted on scraps of wood, artfully painted, and made nearly life size. They were left peeking into and out from
See Smile cont. on page 20
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Volume XXI Number 4
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