Coot Shoot Draws Fire at Lake Mission Viejo : Nature: The annual killing of the migratory fowl ruffles feathers, but homeowners group says it’s necessary.

For some, the coots killed at Lake Mission Viejo mean food on the table. For 16-year-old Geeta Bahl and other animal lovers, the shooting of birds by officials of a homeowners association only leaves a bad taste.

Representatives of the Lake Mission Viejo Homeowners Assn. say they must kill the coots because the migratory birds foul the man-made lake’s water and cause hundreds of thousands of dollars in landscape damage every year. General manager William Schwartz said the association donates the dead birds to residents from Louisiana who use them for Cajun cooking or those from Southeast Asia who substitute coot meat for duck.

But Bahl, a bird lover and a junior at Capistrano Valley High in Mission Viejo, has mounted a campaign for her feathered friends, collecting 85 signatures from Mission Viejo residents who say they want to see the killing of the birds stopped.

Bahl’s efforts have caught the attention of the Mission Viejo City Council and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. A councilwoman has asked the association to consider other solutions and the service says it will investigate whether the association is abiding by its license to kill only coots.

The killing of the coots has become an annual tradition in Mission Viejo, where it is called “the coot shoot.” Since Lake Mission Viejo opened in June, 1978, the chicken-size black waterfowl have arrived by the hundreds every fall from Canada to share the 124-acre lake with swimmers and anglers.

The birds stay until March or April, depleting the lake’s lush landscaping, defecating on decks and walkways of lakefront homes and depleting the lake’s vegetation, Schwartz said.

For the last 14 years, the association has received federal permission to shoot the coots. Maintenance workers, who train for up to three weeks at a skeet range, sit in small boats and fire on the coots sitting among the ducks on the lake. The hunters then retrieve the dead waterfowl for people who have requested the meat.

“We’re glad to give it to them,” Schwartz said. “If it serves a useful purpose, then why not?”

Coots are not in danger of becoming extinct, and Schwartz said the association’s permit allows hunters to kill 450 coots this year.

The association has also received permission from the city to use shotguns to kill the birds. But the sound of gunfire near the lake has raised questions from some Mission Viejo residents.

A grandmother who was driving her two grandchildren to school recalled “how traumatized the kids appeared” after she told them that the loud explosions were gunshots from the hunters, said Mission Viejo Councilwoman Sharon Cody. She said she has received several complaints about the coot shoot.

Bahl said she decided to take some action after she learned about the killing of the birds two weeks ago.

While her friends were busy shopping and wrapping Christmas presents, Bahl was knocking on neighbors’ doors, asking them to sign her petition to stop the coot shoot.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people don’t know that this is happening,” Bahl said. “People have lived here for 12 years and don’t know that our association is using our fees to slaughter these helpless birds.”

Bahl has received the support of Cody, the National Audubon Society and the Pacific Wildlife Project, a Laguna Niguel volunteer group that cares for injured wildlife.

Cody and Linda Evans, director of the Pacific Wildlife Project, say they fear that other birds, including grebes and protected species that live on the lake, could be killed.

In a letter to the association, Cody said Audubon Society spotters noted 500 coots on Lake Mission Viejo in their annual bird count two weeks ago. Schwartz insisted that at least 2,000 coots invaded the lake this year and that hunters are instructed to shoot only coots.

“This discrepancy leads me to believe that the association may be counting birds other than coots,” Cody said. “Is it possible that you are also shooting birds that are not coots?”

Special Agent Marie Palladini of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Torrance said officials will investigate whether the association is abiding by its license. “We think the complaints we have received should at least be investigated to ensure that all the right information was presented in the association’s application,” Palladini said.

Schwartz said the association is willing to listen to alternatives to the coot shoot.

“We have to protect our homeowners’ investments and make sure the lake is viable,” Schwartz said. “It’s not that we like to slaughter these birds. It has not been any fun.”