Million TreesNYC Conference Proceedings: Editor\u27s Introduction

The manuscript is the Editor\u27s Introduction for the 2010 Special Edition of CATE featuring the proceedings of the Million TreesNYC Conference held in March 2010 in New York City

Summer 2011

Cities and the Environment Editor, Eric Strauss, provides an introduction to the Summer 2011 issue. He discusses the journal\u27s transition to its new home at Loyola Marymount University and the creation of the Center for Urban Resilience and Ecological Solution, while underscoring highlights of the special topics section on Urban Predators. The contributors to this section participated in the International Symposium on Urban Wildlife and the Environment hosted by the Wildlife Society at the University of Massachusetts Amherst in June of 2009. Finally, Dr. Strauss notes the breadth of our issue by mentioning the additional articles\u27 focus on rain gardens, water quality, arthropod diversity, green roofs, and socio-ecological dynamics

Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Reservoir Complex Survey

Executive Summary In recognition of the critical moment facing the Silver Lake community as it undergoes the development of a new Reservoir Master Plan, the Loyola Marymount University Center for Urban Resilience (LMU CURes) was invited by the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council (SLNC) to conduct a study to provide sound information to support these efforts. A comprehensive study would likely span multiple years, and would include wildlife, green infrastructure, and social research to analyze the options available to Silver Lake to plan and implement an open space policy. This report focuses on Phase 1, a pilot survey of individuals intended to collect foundational data about the knowledge, attitudes and behaviors of those stakeholders who currently utilize the area. Conducted in late 2018 and developed in consultation with the SLNC, the pilot survey gathered 249 in-person public intercept surveys and 1014 responses to a publicly available online survey. Two public meetings informed modifications of the originally proposed study, including the addition of in-person survey locations and the additional online survey option. The in-person surveys were conducted by nine LMU CURes researchers over a period of approximately six weeks at locations immediately surrounding the reservoir complex or other nearby locations that were chosen at SLNC meetings. The online survey link was available on the LMU CURes website, but efforts to publicize the online survey were managed by the SLNC. Given the varying methodologies, the results from the in-person and online surveys were analyzed separately and viewed as different data sources. The results showed that both in-person and online respondents were predominantly residents of Silver Lake, though there was also representation from others who are considered part of the SLNC’s broader stakeholder community. Those responding to the survey tended to use the reservoir areas often. Based upon the survey results, respondents from the Silver Lake community had many areas of agreement on the benefits and concerns regarding the reservoir complex, but common themes emerged as points of conflict. These included: the presence of dogs and their related facilities, green space and wildlife, accessibility, traffic, and changed usage concerns. While the average reservoir user self-reports to be fairly informed about environmental topics and processes, education and outreach may be needed moving forward. Demographically, the survey was fairly representative of the resident population of Silver Lake, with some exceptions. The intent of the survey was not to have an identical representation of the demographics of Silver Lake, but to be inclusive of other stakeholder opinions. However, if increased representation across categories is desired, an expanded study with a larger sample size could capture greater participation in certain demographic areas. The report details and discusses the results from each survey question, and ends with conclusions and next steps. Possible future directions include recommendations for an expanded survey protocol beyond this Phase 1 pilot, and other areas for analysis and future research based on the findings. These initial findings and recommendations may provide some foundation for the SLNC and the Silver Lake community as they proceed into the planning process for the reservoir complex.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cures_reports/1002/thumbnail.jp

Using Urban Ecology as a Transdisciplinary Approach for Teaching English Learners

Teams from the Center for Equity for English Learners (CEEL) and the Center for Urban Resilience (CURes) at Loyola Marymount University collaborated on multi-year projects to implement the Urban Ecology for English Learners Projects designed to implement a professional learning and curriculum model to explicitly engage students in experiences where they learn science content through investigations of their local schoolyards and neighborhoods while simultaneously advancing language and literacy skills. This partnership empowers educators to leverage the interdisciplinary science of urban ecology and resilience as a way to democratize access and opportunity for English Learner students in diverse urban settings

City of Long Beach Coyote Management Project

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Staff from the Loyola Marymount University Center for Resilience, in collaboration with officials from the City of Long Beach conducted a multiyear analysis of coyote ecology, risk, and management options to be implemented. The project was designed to incorporate local data, regional information and national examples to be applied to the challenges of coyote management in Long Beach. The project was initiated in response to increase concern about the safety of coyotes living within the city and their impact on domestic animals, especially cats. The project occurred at a prescient period in urban coyote research as many parallel projects were taking place across the country, with a few focused in Southern California. As such, the project activities morphed during the period of three years to better capture the new information that was being made available by collaborating scientists in the area and by research teams across the country. The data from Long Beach and other studies indicate that coyotes in Southern California present an increasing risk to domestic animals, especially cats, when compared to both historical studies and other locations across the country. These findings have been supported by multiple research efforts by other scientific teams and by our additional work that is currently underway in Culver City. As a result of these findings, the management challenges for coyotes in Southern California have increased in scope and complexity. Cities across the region are struggling to find effective and humane interventions that can ameliorate the threats presented by coyotes, especially those directed towards domestic animals and people. Our recommendations include: 1) increasing specialized education for stakeholders with regard to reducing coyote risk, 2) implementing a suite of interventions at the individual parcel level that can decrease the potential threat from coyotes, 3) following a tiered response to coyote management with respect to documented incidences, and 4) introducing a palette of strategies that can be applied to residential pet owners as they try to find a balance between pet safety and outdoor activities. This report and its appendices contain detailed information and resources that can be used to address these recommendations. As part of this project, we developed a localized formal in-school curriculum that is available online to the Long Beach Unified School District and other schools in the area. We have also developed a backyard safety survey that can be implemented with relative ease. Finally, the report itself provides a wealth of information pulled together from our data collection in Long Beach as well as other cities throughout the US. These resources can be used by themselves or be incorporated into the development of additional outreach materials. While the Covid-19 pandemic has impacted the feasibility of certain in person community engagement and outreach interventions, these materials can still be utilized immediately. The CURes team stands ready to provide virtual workshops, presentations, and professional advice on individual coyote incidents and the options the city might use to reduce risk.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cures_reports/1000/thumbnail.jp

City of Culver City Coyote Management Report

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The scientific staff at the LMU Center for Urban Resilience, along with affiliated scientists, collaborators and students conducted a three-year management study in order to assist the City of Culver City and its residents in managing the dynamic challenge of coexisting with resident and transient coyotes. Despite the considerable social and logistical upheaval caused by the Covid-19 outbreak, CURes staff and collaborators collected and analyzed data continuously through the various phases of the pandemic. The goals of the project were to: 1) Gather appropriate ecological, technical and human social data with regard to coyote ecology and human-wildlife conflict, 2) analyze these findings in comparison with other studies conducted across North America and 3) develop durable management interventions linked with formal and informal education to reduce the negative impacts of the expanding coyote population in Culver City and beyond. The study employed various data collection methods including remote camera traps, radio-telemetric collars, dietary analysis, direct observation, molecular analytics, and a survey of residents. During the three-year study, we collected nearly 2 million photos, radiocollared two male coyotes, collected nearly 200 scat samples, surveyed 377 residents, and developed educational resources and a backyard study that can help residents determine the coyote risk in their backyard. Some key findings are as follows: While coyote densities did not change much during the three years, densities of their prey species, particularly rabbits, did. These declines could be attributed to decreased rainfall during the study, which has been linked to declining levels of rabbits in the Sonoran desert as well. Studies in other cities, such as Chicago and North Carolina, where cats make up a very small percentage of coyote diet, found that cats avoid areas where coyotes are common. Our study did not find this. Locations where cats were recorded and time of day when they were spotted overlapped significantly with coyote locations and time of day, increasing risk of predation on cats. There are seasonal patterns to when coyotes spend more time within the City rather than the oilfields. There also appears to be a seasonal pattern to when cat appears in coyote diet. Cat appears in greater quantities in summer and fall and is rare in the diet during the winter. Based on this, we recommend a social media schedule that could help inform residents when their cats are at greater risk. Educational outreach utilizing some of the findings of this study may help residents change behavior on how they manage their outdoor cats. DNA analysis from scat samples show that there are likely two packs of coyotes entering Culver City. The first is a pack that ranges from 6-8 near Marycrest Manor and the oilfields. The second does not appear to live within the Culver City limits but enters the City from Ballona Creek, where they appear to travel but not den. Dry scat analysis shows that the Marycrest Manor pack does not prefer cat as their top prey and typically has less than 5% cat in their diet. However, as rabbit density decreased, we saw a change in the coyote diet. In the first year of the study, more than 50% of coyote scat contained rabbit, and very few scat contained cats. However, in the second year, rabbit decreased dramatically from the diet, and cat increased to nearly 20% in October. The survey of residents showed 64% of respondents agreeing that they understand coyote behavior and activities, and 53% agreeing that they know where coyotes frequent. This perceived knowledge goes against previous research and our own experience, suggesting a need for further outreach and education. More than one-fourth of respondents indicated that they are unaware of the City’s coyote management efforts, thus we suggest that the City use a multi-faceted outreach approach. The findings suggest that coyotes in Culver City are responding to a variety of ecological conditions, including drought, prey availability, adjacency to the Ballona Creek and other naturalized patches of habitat. The behavior of coyotes in Culver City is both similar to that of coyotes in other cities, but also expresses novel characteristics that are likely shared by coyotes exploiting the urbanized habitats of Southern California. Predation on domestic cats was not evenly distributed spatially across Culver City, temporally across seasons or equally among coyote subpopulations foraging in Culver City habitats. These variations are likely the result of dynamic prey availability in Culver City and provide insight into future management solutions. Risk of predation of domestic cats by coyotes is impacted by these factors and also by human factors as revealed by our backyard safety surveys and social surveys: in particular, residents’ perceived knowledge of urban coyotes and domestic cats. Core interventions implemented by Culver City officials and local resident stakeholders are informed by the following set of management suggestions: Recommendation 1.Increasing specialized education for stakeholders with regard to reducing coyote risk. Recommendation 2.Implementing a suite of interventions at the individual parcel level that can decrease the potential threat from coyotes. Recommendation 3.Following a tiered response to coyote management with respect to documented incidences. Recommendation 4.Introducing a palette of strategies that can be applied to residential pet owners as they try to find a balance between pet safety and outdoor activities. Each of these interventions have detailed elements in the following report that allow for a tiered response to coyote conflicts with humans and their domestic pets. The success of these approaches is contingent upon the creation of effective feedback loops among the stakeholders so that gaps in the response do not occur and the management interventions are geared to the existing and future threats.https://digitalcommons.lmu.edu/cures_reports/1011/thumbnail.jp

Coywolf, Canis latrans × lycaon, Pack Density Doubles Following the Death of a Resident Territorial Male

We studied a subset of four radio-collared individuals that were a part of a larger study documenting Coywolf (Canis latrans × lycaon; Eastern Coyote) ecology in an urbanized landscape (Cape Cod, Massachusetts), and report on the territory of a typical sized pack that was subdivided roughly in half following the death of the breeding male from the original ("Centerville") pack. The original residents lived in a winter pack size (i.e., after pup/juvenile dispersal) of three or four individuals in a 19.66 km2 territory and a density of 0.15-0.20 individuals/km2, as determined by radio-tracking and direct observations, with their territory bordering that of other monitored packs. Following the death of the breeding male, two other radio-collared Coywolves (a young male from the original Centerville pack and a young female from a bordering pack) shifted their respective territories to overlap the majority of the original Centerville pack's territory. These two groups were the same size as the original pack (three or four individuals each) but occupied smaller territories (5.28 km2 and 12.70 km2) within the previous pack's territory. The combined density for the two new packs was estimated at 0.33-0.45 individuals/km2 or 2.2 times greater than the former pack's density and was 2.5 times (0.38-0.50 individuals/km2) greater when accounting for the slight (12%) overlap between the territories of the two new packs. Our results suggest that local Coyote/Coywolf density (i.e., at the pack level) may increase following the death of the breeding male of a given pack, probably because of the reduced (or lack of) protection of territorial boundaries. This finding has particular relevance to Coyote/Coywolf management programs aimed at reducing local densities via removal of individuals from these populations. Further implications exist for enriching our understanding of the trophic dynamics of urbanized habitats

Climate Change Adaptation in Mediterranean Cities: An Introduction to the Special Issue

Given the highly developed nature of Mediterranean regions and their importance in global trade and migration, it is crucial to develop comprehensive solutions for climate change. The widespread societal impacts of climate change add urgency towards transdisciplinary and transnational solutions for climate change adaptation. We represent the Mediterranean Climate Change Consortium (MC-4), an international network of scholars, policy makers, and practitioners working towards climate change adaptation in cities with Mediterranean climates. Our proposition is that areas with similar, Mediterranean, climates will have more climate adaptation lessons to share with each other than areas with distinctly different climates. As a step towards this, we present this special issue, which is a collection of articles and practitioner notes focused on climate change adaptation in Mediterranean climate cities. While this issue has a special focus on southern California, we hope these articles serve as a springboard for the discussion of adaptation lessons from other Mediterranean areas. We look forward to highlighting these regions in subsequent issues. We would like to invite other Mediterranean climate change adaptation scholars and professionals to join us in sharing their research and case studies to be collected in this volume