Sprucing Up the Town Forest and Making It Safe

As the weather warms up, more residents will take to walking in local open spaces. The Ashland Town Forest Committee wants to make sure that residents are safe.
“Since I became chair, we have focused on ensuring that the trails are as user friendly as possible,” Cathy Rooney, Town Forest Committee, said. “We are in the process of restoring and adding new kiosks, map posts, way-finding numbers and more. We are also reminding folks about the basics, like don’t trash the forest and leash and clean up after you dog. The coyote awareness piece is due to a couple of recent incidents, and because we want folks to enjoy the forest while being safe.”
“On one of the postings, we are again asking folks to clean up after themselves, take their trash out, don’t throw it in the parking lot or on the trails. Coyotes consider trash and other human activities smells like they consider food,” Rooney explained. “By behaving badly and trashing the trails with dog deposits and more, we are leading the coyotes out of the woods to our back doorsteps, where there is even more trash and food to investigate. We really need to make this connection, and get folks to pay attention.”
“Coyotes are very adaptable, and they are learning how to forage in our neighborhoods as we develop more of their habitat. We can both discourage and not encourage them to come near us. This technique is called Coyote Hazing,” Rooney said.
Hazing is a powerful tool for keeping coyotes at a distance by reinforcing the coyote’s natural wariness of people, according to The Humane Society of the United States (www.humanesociety.org/animals/coyotes). The Humane Society and other organizations are attempting to educate humans on hazing.
“Hazing is a SMART way to reduce coyote conflict in your community,” the guidelines say.
Stop; Make yourself as big as possible; Announce yourself by Activity (noise, loud, waving arms and flashing lights); Repeat and Reinforce several times until the coyote leaves the area. Do not stop the hazing until the coyote leaves the area. Teach a neighbor or a friend so they can do it to.
When not to haze is as important as hazing. Be aware of what else might be going on with the coyote—is their den or are their pups nearby? Does it look sick or injured? If this is the case, and/or it won’t move away when you are hazing: Look large and maintain eye contact. Slowly back away; never run!
“I know of at least one person who ran from a coyote, or the sounds of them, when she heard them in the forest,” Rooney said. “It could have led to a bad end; all the literature I found that discusses coyote encounters say to never run, as that is what their food does!”
Mass Wildlife (www.mass.gov/masswildlife) is another resource for living safely with coyotes.
“Our committee could not function without all it’s hardworking members!,” Rooney noted. “Kudos go to them for jumping right in, rolling up their sleeves and working on these projects! Rob St. Germain has led the effort to produce the kiosks and map posts; Bill Moulton has led the effort to do all the mapping. Our newest member Mike Jones has jumped right in to assist with all these projects. Our working together has made this committee really great, and a pleasure to be part of!”