The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is narrowing down ways to protect endangered species living below the Seven Oaks Dam near Highland, and considering whether to truck water to a preserve area or build a dike to funnel water from the Santa Ana River.

The federal agency is holding a meeting at 6:30 p.m. Thursday in San Bernardino to get public input into ways to manage the 760-acre reserve for the San Bernardino kangaroo rat and two endangered flowers, the Santa Ana woolly star and the slender-horned spineflower, Megan Wong, an environmental coordinator with the Corps of Engineers, said Tuesday.

Details:

Thursday’s meeting will be held at the San Bernardino County Flood Control District, 825 E. Third St., San Bernardino.

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A young, diseased coyote was captured Saturday afternoon, May 10, in a Redlands neighborhood, one day after it was scared off as it reportedly stalked a small child.

Animal Control Supervisor Bill Miller used a tranquilizer dart to shoot the young female coyote, which was infected with mange, a parasitic skin infection most commonly found in dogs and other canines. He later confirmed it was the same animal seen stalking a 2-year-old child late Friday, May 9, in the area near San Mateo Street and Magnolia Avenue.

The coyote was scared off by the child’s grandfather and a neighbor, who got between the animal and the child and yelled to frighten it away.

It’s likely there are other, healthy coyotes in the area, so be on the lookout if you’re around there. Actually, pretty much anywhere in the IE, it seems like.

Not to be alarmist, of course: it’s just good to remember we’re not the only inhabitants of the region, no matter how much concrete and asphalt there is.

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San Bernardino County sheriff’s investigators said Melissa Rowley was taking pictures of her daughter and three other children in front of their home about 11:45 a.m.

When she went inside to put away the camera, a coyote ran up, grabbed Rowley’s 2-year-old daughter by the head and tried to drag her down the driveway.

When Rowley rushed the animal, it dropped the girl, who was airlifted to Loma Linda Medical Center and treated for cuts on her mouth and puncture wounds on her head and neck. Sheriff’s spokeswoman Cindy Beavers said the girl was expected to fully recover.

Unfortunately, the fate of these coyotes isn’t a happy one –

“In the past nine months, five children have been bitten in that area,” Morse said. “We have gone in there and killed 23 coyotes since December. We want to eliminate as many as possible because they represent a serious threat to safety. They are attacking children right next to their parents.”

Morse said hunters working for Fish and Game spotted a coyote near the area where the Lake Arrowhead attack occurred, but it wasn’t safe to shoot it.

Coyotes usually are trapped in snares and shot.

Two attacks, even if they are scary and sad, do not mean everybody needs to panic. But as always, be safe, keeping a sharp eye on your children and pets in danger areas.

A mountain lion was captured about 1:30 a.m. Tuesday in the 1400 block of Beaver Way, said La Verne Police Lt. Gary Mason.

“We found a mountain lion sitting on the freeway wall,” Mason said.

“It was sitting up there, kicking back.”

From what it sounds like, I wish I could have seen a picture. :)

They had to chase and tranquilize him, but got him released afterwards.

A mountain lion in the Beaver Way neighborhood was unusual, Mason said.

“This was down right on the freeway - that was the only odd thing,” he said. “Normally, we just shoo them into the mountains.”

Update: Unfortunately, the story wasn’t quite accurate — according to the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, the mountain lion died:

Authorities said a La Verne resident in the 1400 block of Beaver Way called about 12:30 a.m., saying the animal was sitting on a wall next to the 210 Freeway. Police contacted the California Department of Fish and Game officials, who later attempted to tranquilize the animal to transport and release him into the wilderness.

But the big cat, a young male between 9 and 14 months old, did not survive the ordeal, officials said.

“The lion died in the darting and transporting process,” said Fish and Game spokesman Harry Morse. “There is a loss factor. In this case the mountain lion did not make it through the capture.”

That’s really sad. Thanks to LA Now for pointing to the update.

Update 2: A bit more on the story, including a picture of the cat, from LA Now:

A neighbor called police, who then called the Department of Fish and Game. The animal, which was shot with a tranquilizer dart, died as it was being transported back into the hills.

“Everyone did their best,” [Ed] Dominguez said. “They really tried to save him.”

Two coyotes are dead and officers are hunting others after closing a Chino Hills park where children have been bitten or threatened on at least seven occasions since last July.

On Friday, a coyote bit and tried to drag off a 2-year-old girl. The next evening, a coyote “made a beeline” for another small child in the same park, but the father kicked at the animal and scared it away, said state Fish and Game Assistant Chief Mike McBride.

In the past nine months, four children have been bitten and one child was attacked twice, he said.

Although it’s confusing for officials why the concentration of incidents, they’re guessing the coyotes have gotten used to being fed (inadvertently or otherwise) in the area.

The old rules still apply, whether in parks, campgrounds, or on the trail: clean up after yourself. It’s not just for the sake of cleanliness — you’re keeping things safer for folks in the future.

“Essentially, if one of these linkages is lost, it reduces the ecological integrity of the entire network,” said Kristeen Penrod, conservation director for South Coast Wildlands.

In 2000, land managers, conservancy groups and academic and government scientists from such agencies as the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service and state parks gathered at the San Diego Zoo. There, they identified 232 wildlife linkages in California, 69 of them in Southern California.

Some of those same scientists narrowed the critical list down to the 15 linkages released in the latest report, “South Coast Missing Linkages: a Wildland Network for the South Coast Ecoregion.”

A PDF of the report is available for download as well.

The Poodle-dog bush, also known as Turricula parryi, can cause itching rashes and irritation. The San Bernardino County Fire Department issued an advisory this week warning people not to touch or smell it.

• Turricula parryi at Calflora.org
• Photos at CalPhotos
• Turricula parryi at USDA

Photo © Br. Alfred Brousseau, Saint Mary’s College.

Update: there’s a thread over on SoCalTrailRiders about exploring the Chiquita Ridge. One of the commenters mentions getting rashes from certain shrubs, and another links to this page. Someone posted a picture of the results of a run-in with one of the poodle dog bushes. Ouch!

If you’re game enough to navigate the streets of Los Angeles and the hills of Chavez Ravine, well then yes, there is a parking spot at the end of your pedaling rainbow.

A Dodger Thoughts commenter Tuesday passed along this post from StreetsBlog Los Angeles wondering where you could safely lock your bicycle at Dodger Stadium. I asked Josh Rawitch of the Dodgers, and he replied that “Indeed, we allow bicycles to park at the top of lot P to the left of the gates.”

Naturally, there is some concern about whether or not your bike is safe during the game, and whether you’re safe after, but nevertheless, this is a cool thing. Now they just need to get some sort of tram to Union Station, and we’ll be in business.

“Part of Salton Sea’s desolate shore made into a lush oasis”

[Debi] Livesay is no scientist. She’s a former journalist with a gift for big ideas, a talent for securing grants and total self confidence.

As the Salton Sea dwindles, pesticide-laced sediments have blown over the reservation, exposing thousands of tribal members and other nearby residents to toxic chemicals. In 2001, Livesay, the tribe’s head of water resources, was charged with finding a solution.

“We can’t afford to have the Salton Sea dry out or people couldn’t live here anymore,” she said. “It would be 200 times bigger than Owens Lake. All you need is an inch of water to keep the dust settled. So I said, ‘Let’s make a wetland.’”

It wasn’t easy by any means, and despite the great success there are still challenges, especially from illegal hunters who prowl the outskirts of the new wetlands, killing birds indiscriminately and leaving their bodies. Not to mention the dumping that has been going on for decades, leaving the Torres Martinez reservation “one of the most polluted in the West.”

Even so, as the toxic cleanup continues, Livesay is navigating the jurisdictional issues to get poachers arrested…and amazing things are happening out there in the desert.

She cut the engine.

“Wait until you go around the corner,” she said. “You have never seen anything like it.”

A few feet away, birds were thick as mosquitoes. They floated in dark, choppy water and buzzed about like feathery missiles.

“You have birds here that shouldn’t be here, birds from Canada all the way down to Central America,” she said. “People come from all over the world to see this sight. There is no other place like it. And that’s why we have to preserve it.”

In this LA Times story today, “‘MASH’ camp comes alive”, the news comes that state officials want to re-create the sets as an attraction, since so many visitors come to see them for that reason and come away disappointed.

Of course, it wasn’t just M*A*S*H that was filmed at the park,

The park’s 6,000-plus acres have been the backdrop for thousands of movie and TV scenes since 1927, when it became the Scottish Highlands for a silent movie called “Annie Laurie” that starred Lillian Gish.

It doubled for Wales in 1941’s best-picture Oscar winner, “How Green Was My Valley” and was Shangri-La in 1937’s “Lost Horizon.”

It was the backdrop for a primate-run world in “Planet of the Apes” in 1968 and where “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” were chased over a cliff by a pursuing posse in 1969.

But it is “MASH” that matters most to park visitors, who come from all over the world to see for themselves the Korean wartime world inhabited by Hawkeye, Hot Lips, BJ, Trapper John and the others who filled out the landmark black comedy’s on-camera Army surgical team.

They’re even considering special overnight camping arrangements with possible screenings of the show — projected onto a bed sheet, naturally.

Whatever one thinks of the idea, it certainly seems a unique enough reason to go for a stroll in the great outdoors.

Happy New Year!

Creepy LA (the “Los Angeles Halloween Blog”) posted yesterday on “Haunted Hikes”, including info on after-dark trips in Griffith Park with the Sierra Club, seeing wolves near Forest Lawn, and more. Check it out if you’re looking for a little more heart-pounding action in your outdoor excursions this month.

Getting the crap scared out of you is a good aerobic activity, right? ;)

Part of the flood control section of the river, with a multi-use trail on the side, looking east.

The trail next to the river, with the Sunset Drive hills to the left/north.

Buffalo Meadows Ranch’s cool sign.

At the intersection of San Timoteo and Redlands Boulevard, which actually goes to Moreno Valley.

Also at that intersection, with the arrows pointing to my starting point and current target.

Just in case you need a domesticated pack animal of the camel family found in the Andes, valued for its soft woolly fleece. Of course, every time I see a llama, a voice in my head yells, “¡Cuidado! ¡Las Llamas!”

Typical view in the rural parts of the canyon — it was a gorgeous afternoon, with very little traffic once I got past the Redlands Blvd turnoff.

Some scouts created a display on a wall they built (IIRC), including some historical tidbits about the area. The one above describes the “Old Salt Road” that ran through the canyon in the 1800s.

The historical, one-room San Timoteo Canyon Schoolhouse, at 31985 San Timoteo Canyon Road.

Not just a portrait of the cyclist as a young man — also a harbinger, thanks to lengthening shadows.

You’re cycling along, minding your own business in a rural landscape, when all of a sudden a featureless wall and radio tower appear out of nowhere. Spooky. Never did figure out what was going on here. A religious cult was my first guess. ;D

They were working on widening the road near its eastern end, probably due to all the development, so I went off-road for a spell and enjoyed several trains for company.

Waving to the engineers always solicits a return wave. Sometimes I think trainspotting would be a fun diversion.

Ah yes, the wild golfer in its natural environment. I don’t think golfcartspotting would be nearly as interesting.

The road ends finally at the 10 Freeway. I’ll be taking a left on the frontage road to head back to Redlands. Note longer cyclist shadow.

This little guy and the darkening sky behind provided a last moment of beauty.

Finally! A convenience store meal. Heavy on the carbs and fluids. It was sunset by this time.

The setting sun and its dramatic exit as I hurried towards home.

The next photo on my camera was almost exactly 4 hours later, sitting in the emergency room with my arm in a sling.

From the NOAA “Special Weather Statement”:

…STRONG SEPTEMBER STORM POSSIBLE LATE THURSDAY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY… A STRONG STORM FOR SEPTEMBER MAY MOVE THROUGH SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA LATE THURSDAY THROUGH EARLY SATURDAY. THIS STORM HAS THE POTENTIAL TO PRODUCE WEATHER VERY RARELY SEEN IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN SEPTEMBER. THIS COULD BE THE STRONGEST MID LATITUDE SEPTEMBER STORM FOR SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA IN AROUND 20 YEARS.

From the Press-Enterprise article “Big September storm on horizon”, there’s an added wrinkle.

With forecasters calling for what could be the most powerful September storm in 20 years to arrive late Thursday, firefighters battling the Butler 2 blaze in the Big Bear Lake area could face winds, rain and snow late this week.

Naturally, there’s a Red Flag warning in effect, thanks to the winds ahead of the storm:

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE IN LAS VEGAS HAS ISSUED A RED FLAG WARNING…WHICH IS IN EFFECT FROM 11 AM PDT /11 AM MST/ TO 9 PM PDT /9 PM MST/ WEDNESDAY. THE FIRE WEATHER WATCH IS NO LONGER IN EFFECT. A STRONG LOW PRESSURE SYSTEM WILL DROP SOUTH INTO NORTHERN CALIFORNIA ON WEDNESDAY. INCREASING SOUTHWEST FLOW ALOFT AHEAD OF THIS LOW WILL BRING SUSTAINED WINDS OF 15 TO 30 MPH WITH GUSTS BETWEEN 35 AND 45 MPH TO MUCH OF THE AREA BY WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. RELATIVE HUMIDITY VALUES ARE EXPECTED TO BE CLOSE TO OR BELOW 15 PERCENT IN MOST AREAS. STRONG WINDS AND LOW RELATIVE HUMIDITIES WILL PERSIST INTO THE EVENING HOURS BEFORE CONDITIONS MODERATE AFTER ABOUT 9 PM.

So fasten your seat belts, it’s gonna be a bumpy ride. ;)