In Battle of Neighbors, the Mountain Lion Is the Loser

When you think of the things that incite neighborhood squabbles today, you think of blocked views, the wrong colors for the shutters and inattentive lawn maintenance. Such is the sanitized nature of Hatfield-McCoy feuding in contemporary urban society.

But in some parts of the county--those parts where residents have opted to stay at arm’s length from the wonders of modernity and planned communities--the squabbles resonate to a more primal beat.

So it is in canyon country, where residents don’t move in by process of elimination. You make conscious lifestyle decisions to live there, not decisions driven by how much house you can afford. People settle there because they want to live a bit closer to nature and be in a place where life isn’t quite so convenient.

Sherry Meddick is an ardent environmentalist who moved into a home in Silverado Canyon 17 years ago. She liked the fact that people had raised livestock around there for several generations and that the area abutted Cleveland National Forest.

“We don’t have the amenities of the downtown folks, and that’s fine with us,” Meddick said.

But now, a neighborhood squabble is brewing that has disrupted the normal tranquillity and put people on edge.

A property owner in the area has shot two mountain lions this winter, acts that have outraged some other residents who accuse him of indifference to the dwindling cat population.

What makes the dispute so potentially troublesome is that the property owner is perfectly within his rights to shoot the lions, who, he says, have killed some of his goats. Meddick and her neighbors say they can only appeal to his sense of wildlife protection and have even gone so far as to agree to offer time and money to build a protected pen for the man’s goats.

It’s an offer they don’t expect him to accept.

Meddick says her friends “are so mad we’re just trying to cool off.” They know the man has the right to shoot the mountain lions and are furious because they think his actions are unnecessary.

I tried repeatedly to reach the man but couldn’t, so I won’t identify him here, but he’s been quoted in other articles as confirming that he shot the two big cats and would shoot others if his goats are endangered.

Besides, it’s not personalities that are involved here, it’s philosophy.

The neighborhood fight is one that increasingly has been played out in those parts of California where urban life meets the wild, says Mark Palmer of the Mountain Lion Foundation, based in Sacramento.

He said the last annual figures showed 175 incidents of livestock or pets killed by lions, resulting in the shooting deaths of 60 mountain lions. It’s a course that may threaten the species in some parts of California, he said.

“It can be avoided and that’s where the tragedy lies,” Palmer said. “I think they can find ways, and they’re going to have to find a way for mountain lions and people to live together.” He said there are a few tactics that could discourage mountain lions from coming after the goats.

The long-range answer is a public education program, Palmer said, because civilization relentlessly moves in on mountain lion habitat. He said his group is hoping to work with state wildlife officials to develop an education program geared to peaceful coexistence between man and beast.

In the meantime, Meddick and some neighbors do a slow burn.

“One of the things that people have been pretty strong about out here is not changing the environment to fit our lives, but trying to fit ourselves into the environment. I’ve been here 17 years and I feel incredibly lucky to live here, to be able to see this kind of environment.”

She said the man who has killed the big cats could have gotten help from his neighbors, who have lived there longer and learned other ways to protect livestock. “Most of us work around the wildlife,” Meddick said.

This neighborhood dispute has repercussions that go far beyond whether someone in town wants fuchsia shutters instead of white. It goes beyond one man’s property rights and addresses the ongoing problem of whether we have the right to decimate the “critters,” as Rep. William E. Dannemeyer calls them, or make the effort to preserve them.

The man with the shotgun should meet with Meddick.

One thing seems clear: It’s the people who have to come to the bargaining table to solve the problem, not the mountain lions.

It’s the people who are supposedly the ones with the brains.