Homes on the Range

Since Anita Weston moved to a cottage nestled near the creek in Laguna Canyon three years ago, a coyote ate her cat and a flood ravaged her house and destroyed her car. But the former urbanite said she cannot imagine leaving life on the edge of the wilderness.

The flood “was a great experience, to realize Mother Nature is just that powerful and material things don’t matter that much,” the Laguna Beach resident said. Her cat’s death was heartbreaking, she said, but also a solemn reminder of the rugged wilderness that is literally outside her front gate.

The former Long Beach resident is not alone in choosing to leave city lights, traffic congestion and the concrete jungle for the solitude of nature. But conservationists are worried that even the best-intentioned neighbors can have devastating effects on their surroundings.

Actions as seemingly innocuous as allowing pets to run free, planting exotic fauna or hiking off a trail can destroy sensitive habitats and drive away wildlife, including endangered species.

To educate people about coexisting with the wilderness, the Nature Conservancy, Irvine Co. and Nature Reserve of Orange County will mail 5,000 educational brochures this week to residents who live next to Peters Canyon Regional Park, Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, Aliso and Wood Canyons Wilderness Park and Whiting Ranch Wilderness Park. Another 5,000 brochures will be distributed through the reserve, the parks, the Irvine Co. and schools.

“Whenever you build up houses right next to wild lands, you just get a whole slew of issues that you have to address,” said Erick Burres, an ecological reserve manager with the state Department of Fish and Game.

The Irvine Co. spent $30,000 producing the eight-page color brochures, which offer tips on gardening, pets, wildfire protection, safety and more.

“It’s designed for people who live on the edge of the wilderness--what to be aware of and how to interact,” said Debra Clarke, outreach coordinator for the Nature Conservancy.

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Wilderness areas near housing, such as Laguna Coast Wilderness Park, have more unauthorized trails and trespassing in protected areas than wilderness areas in more remote locations, she said.

These parks are more than just recreational space--they are homes to gnatcatchers, tarantulas, owls, lizards, deer, coyotes, bobcats, rattlesnakes, the occasional mountain lion and a host of other creatures, Clarke said.

Activity that seems harmless, such as walking off trails, can disturb ground-nesting birds, erode soils and crush plants. “Use park entrances and travel on designated trails,” the brochure admonishes. “It doesn’t take much off-trail activity to beat down sensitive vegetation, whether you are traveling by foot, horseback or bicycle.”

Pets should not be allowed to run free because they can decimate bird populations, introduce domestic diseases to wildlife, pick up disease-carrying ticks or be killed by predators, according to the brochure. Humans too need to remember that the wild animals can be dangerous.

Dogs should be left at home while walking wilderness trails, the brochure says. “Deer and other wildlife tend to avoid areas with dog scent or droppings, thus shrinking their available habitat.”

Encroaching development and shrinking habitat are why these large, protected areas are so crucial, said Earl Lauppe, a biologist with the state Department of Fish and Game.

“We are pushing into [the animals’] land so far that they are just desperate for space,” he said. “What they have down there in Orange County in some of those open space areas--that’s really great.”

Lauppe said the only true protection for these refuges is education.

A more visible threat to parklands is the brazen offenders--people who machete unauthorized trails into mountainsides, rearrange soil to build bike ramps and shoot BB and paint guns, according to park rangers.

Because of limited resources and a huge coverage area, it’s difficult to catch these interlopers, and rangers currently can’t do much even if they do catch them. But in March, the park rangers will gain the power to issue citations.

But rangers say nuisance complaints--animals getting into gardens or the garbage--are far more common at the edge of the wild.

“The biggest thing is people and deer,” said Laguna Coast Wilderness Park park ranger Larry Sweet. “How do you garden with deer? Putting up an 8-foot fence--that’s nothing for a deer to get over.”

The answer is site-specific fencing--and accepting the fact that perfectly manicured lawns and gardens are not realistic in the wild.

Martin Alper moved to the edge of Laguna Canyon in April from a more suburban part of Laguna Beach.

Alper tried to put manicured flower beds between the 50-foot-tall eucalyptus trees that grace his property.

“It just doesn’t work. It doesn’t look right, either,” the London native said. Now, “we’ve got very low-maintenance landscaping--cactus and indigenous plants.”

Another adjustment newcomers often face is dealing with the never-ending layer of dust that blows in from the canyon.

“You can’t keep anything neat and tidy. It’s a complete waste of time to even try,” Alper said. “Doing battle with nature is like trying to put a finger in a dam that’s leaking.”

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Teaching people this coexistence lesson is the key, environmentalists said.

“We need to promote stewardship whenever possible,” Burres said. “Within Southern California, the environment is a very huge issue . . . so we get a lot of Hollywood people promoting ‘Save the rain forest.’ We need the same type of things locally--on how to protect the oak woodlands, the grasslands, the wetlands and the local canyons.”

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On the Edge

People living near wildlife reserves in Orange County are more likely to have wildlife visiting their yards in search of food, water, shelter or nesting areas. Steps experts recommend taking to prevent unwanted visitors:

* Feed your pets inside and don’t leave other food out overnight. Clean any remaining food and sauce off your barbecue immediately after use. Skunks like barbecue sauce and will knock over even a hot grill.

* Keep your garage from becoming a food source. Use receptacles with locking lids, or store them in the garage rather than outside.

* Screen any openings under your house.

* Avoid brush or rock piles close to the house.

* Protect all pets within a fenced back yard for their overall safety. Vaccinate dogs and cats regularly against rabies.

* Keep all pets inside at night, especially cats and small dogs. Enclose bird or rabbit pens on all sides, including the top (install roof or secure chicken wire).

* Bury fencing one foot underground to prevent raccoons and other animals from tunneling underneath. A 12-inch-high concrete wall around the perimeter of your yard will deter snakes. Check the perimeter frequently. Accept that raccoons and herons will eat the fish in your ornamental pond if it is less than 5 feet deep.

* Never release unwanted cats, dogs, fish, frogs, birds, etc. into a park or natural area. Abandoned pets usually starve to death or are eaten. Released pets may introduce disease into wild animal populations. * Hire someone to live-trap and remove a nuisance animal if other methods fail.

Source: “Living Close to Nature” by the Nature Conservancy, the Irvine Co., and the Nature Reserve of Orange County