Sweet Smell of Success for Skunks

Score one for the skunks.

After intense weekend negotiations between residents and a homeowners association, the skunks and opossums of a Huntington Beach neighborhood were saved from Monday’s proposed trapping.

The homeowners association board bowed to upset residents of SeaCliff on the Greens late Sunday night, agreeing to educate the community about living peacefully with wildlife. Several residents had passionately opposed the trapping, saying it would disrupt the animals’ birthing season and could leave litters of motherless young.

“I’m just happy the animals are going to live,” said resident Margaret Clark, who led the pro-animal troops. “When you move into an area where animals lived before, you’ve just got to coexist.”

Clark’s neighborhood hugs the edge of the Bolsa Chica wetlands, an area teeming with wildlife. The board told Clark that trapping was necessary to protect the association against potential lawsuits if an animal were to attack.

For now, board members will encourage residents not to leave pet food outdoors at night, which can attract wildlife. If the situation improves, a board representative told Clark, trapping is unlikely.

“I feel like the weight of the world is off my shoulders,” Clark said Monday.

This is only the latest wildlife-versus-humans skirmish in the county. In May, hundreds of wild rabbits at Seal Beach’s Leisure World narrowly escaped being shot after some residents complained that the animals were taking over. According to wildlife experts, the rabbits ran rampant because foxes, their natural predators, had been removed from the area.

In Corona del Mar, some residents are objecting to poison traps set out to combat squirrels. Dozens of deer, coyotes and other wildlife have been killed by traffic on the Eastern toll road, which cuts through land that had been undeveloped. And golf courses all over the Southland regularly host “coot shoots” to kill off birds.

“We have to be aware . . . that as we develop in more natural areas, these types of conflicts will become more common,” said Connie Boardman of the Bolsa Chica Land Trust.

“It’s not just learning to get along, its understanding that when you buy a house near a natural area, you have to deal with some things you wouldn’t if you bought a house in a more urbanized area.”