Responding to ground squirrel problem in Los Gatos: For the faint of heart or pure animal rights activists do not continue to read.
We had a huge problem with ground squirrels at an 11 acre piece of land owned by the Santa Clara Unified School District. Our nonprofit organization was approved for building a community based farm on this property. As we moved in we learned of a neighbor (a few screws missing) who was feeding the ground squirrels for years, so their population was large (too many for the raptors that live nearby to handle - and they started girdling our orchard trees - so I had to act). I learned from the neighbors example that fruit is a favorite of the squirrels. I set up a good sized trap (about 2' x 2' x 6" high), right next to a fresh hole (new dirt pushed up out of the hole), and laid some fruit (cut up apple at the time) in the hole, some leading to the trap, and some in the trap. They went right for it within a few hours (early morning or early evening is best). According to Santa Clara County health department the ground squirrels are rodents. Therefore, they can be killed, but not relocated. I bought a cheap Toys-R-Us swimming pool for kids, and after catching a squirrel or two in the trap, I drowned them in the pool. I then buried the carcass in the hole from which they came and covered it up. I took care of nearly 100 of them during those first few months, and the population is back in control - little impact to the farm and still some to feed the raptors (red tailed hawks among them). The purpose was not to rid them entirely, but to put them back in numbers that seemed in balance with nature. Josh Salans ----- Original Message ---- From: "[email protected]" <[email protected]> To: [email protected] Sent: Thursday, July 23, 2009 10:00:31 AM Subject: Community_garden Digest, Vol 794, Issue 1 Note: Forwarded message is attached. Send Community_garden mailing list submissions to [email protected] To subscribe or unsubscribe via the World Wide Web, visit http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org or, via email, send a message with subject or body 'help' to [email protected] You can reach the person managing the list at [email protected] When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Community_garden digest..." Today's Topics: 1. urban design alliance (William Maynard) 2. Performance Based Leases (Kirk _) 3. Re: urban design alliance (Ken Hargesheimer) 4. ground squirrels ([email protected]) -----Inline Message Follows----- urban design alliance - sacramento will be hosting a meeting and workshop tonight wed July 22 6pm - 7:30pm 1400 S street at the AIA building sacramento, california speaker Bill Maynard from the American Community Gardening Association, and the City of Sacramento Community Garden Program will be making a short presentation on the challenges for urban agriculture. then the attendees will break into groups and work on a variety of green project layouts and challenges and then report back to the groups for more info call 916 508-6025 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090722/882d79be/attachment.html> -----Inline Message Follows----- Hi All, This is Kirk in Buffalo I work with Grassroots Gardens and most of our community gardens are leased from the City of Buffalo. Currently our lease doesn't provide much protection from the City if they want to take it back. We are working on a community process for creating a new performance based lease with the City of Buffalo and I am wondering if anyone has an example of a performance based lease that has worked in their city? Any help you can give would be greatly appreciated. Kirk Laubenstein 208 North St. Buffalo NY 14201 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090722/11eddca8/attachment.html> -----Inline Message Follows----- http://www.ruaf.org/node/2066 This is an excellant magazine and this issue the best: Building Resilient Cities. Ken Hargesheimer -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090722/24b5e8aa/attachment.html> -----Inline Message Follows----- Any tips on dealing with ground squirrels that are raiding some of our gardens ? Les Los Gatos Community Gardens (in California) **************Dell Deals: Treat yourself to a sweet deal on popular laptops! (http://pr.atwola.com/promoclk/100126575x1223100673x1201716527/aol?redir=http:%2F%2Faltfarm.mediaplex.com%2Fad%2Fck%2F12309%2D81939%2D1629%2D7) -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: <http://list.communitygarden.org/pipermail/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org/attachments/20090723/fa97492c/attachment.html> _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org _______________________________________________ The American Community Gardening Association listserve is only one of ACGA's services to community gardeners. To learn more about the ACGA and to find out how to join, please go to http://www.communitygarden.org To post an e-mail to the list: [email protected] To subscribe, unsubscribe or change your subscription: http://list.communitygarden.org/mailman/listinfo/community_garden_list.communitygarden.org
