When my husband moved to Boulder from New York, his parents made a lot of assumptions about what life would be like. “All that snow!” they said, not knowing that the kind of snow we experience here in Boulder, Denver, and the rest of the Colorado Front Range is exponentially more tolerable–and fleeting–than the precipitation New Yorkers must endure all winter. They wondered if any of the streets of downtown Boulder were paved, and if horse-drawn carriages were still in use. The truth is, there are no handsome cabs in Boulder.
My in-laws and I all laugh together now at the perceptions of “big city folk,” but on one issue their assumptions were pretty close: Wildlife encounters do exist, and seem to be heading toward the more frequent end of the scale. Yes, it’s normal to find deer grazing on the lawns of homes all over Boulder, especially those close to open space areas, and especially if you’ve landscaped the yard with tasty flowers. It’s wise while driving at dusk to watch for foxes crossing the road, and my dog has harassed a coyote or two–from afar. But it’s also not that rare to see a family of bears lumbering down the streets, especially on trash pickup day. Usually, coexisting with all this wildlife is a perk. It makes things interesting and serene, and reminds us how lucky we are to live near nature. However…
The principal of South Boulder’s Bear Creek Elementary recently issued the following letter (excerpted):
“A mountain lion was seen in the South Boulder neighborhood as recently
as two days ago. Although mountain lions are in our area, unseen,
much of the time, this is a good opportunity to remind ourselves and
our students of safety as it relates to mountain lions.”
To learn more about mountain lions, including information about how to avoid encounters with mountain lions and what to do if a close encounter occurs, the Colorado Division of Wildlife tells all at:
http://wildlife.state.co.us/WildlifeSpecies/Profiles/Mammals/MountainLion.htm
March 1st, 2009 at 10:21 pm
I love all of nature, even roaches and slugs. But I think Boulder’s response to the recent flurry of critter-encounters (I’m talking about the big, toothy kind that slink up behind you and grab your dog, if you’re lucky, rather than you or your kid) is on the lame end of the scale. “They were here first” is good as far as it goes, but La Cucaracha and viruses were here first also, and we don’t shrug and say “Look how magnificent they are.” We should be a bit more aggressive about discouraging deer from hanging out in Boulder, im my opinion. We have too many deer, and too many cougars. When they’re walking down the street (as one mountain lion did on my street – Mariposa, between 14th and 15th, last year) with an expresson, as my 14-year-old daughter put it, “Like butter wouldn’t melt,” we know that we’ve been a bit too welcoming for our own good.
April 22nd, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Liz, I agree, this a heck of a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into. When one of my neighbors started dumping the apples from their tree over the fence into open space, I wondered if they knew they were chumming the waters. I think the simple creed of “don’t feed the wildlife” can take us, not all the way, but a long way toward understanding how not to upset nature’s delicate balance any more than we already have.