By Jim Shilander
The city of San Clemente will continue with a falconry program used over the last two years that seems to have led to a decrease in bacteria warnings at Poche Beach, though City Council members expressed a desire for additional data to justify continuing next year.
San Clemente’s senior management analyst Mary Vondrak provided information to the council showing that with the program in place last year, the beach had only five days during the summer on the county’s list of beaches exceeding healthy levels of bacteria in the water. The beach had previously found a consistent place on Heal the Bay’s “Beach Bummer” list for polluted beaches in the state, due largely to the sometimes hundreds of gulls that would feed and nest there.
Other efforts ongoing at the beach include the placement of plastic decoy coyotes during the winter to scare off the gulls, as well as a falconry project at the county’s Prima Deschecha Landfill, which aims to cut off a food source for the gulls.
Poche, a county beach, is technically located within the Dana Point boundaries, at the south end of Capistrano Beach. The city of San Clemente has taken the lead in pollution mitigation programs because the outflow emptying onto the beach is runoff from that city.
San Clemente resident George Gregory opposed spending funds on the project, saying the city had other options, including continuing the coyote program in the summer (the two do not run concurrently), or having scouts or shelter dogs patrol the area. Other residents said they favored the program, given its success.
The project, which was bid out, will cost $52,800 for the summer and be performed by the same provider. The company, Adam’s Falconry Service, was the low bidder, with others as high as $213,000. The company also performs the service at the landfill. Service began this week and is slated to end Friday, Oct. 30.
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