Author: Jackson

Coyote Calculations

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The coyote population of Connecticut is on the rise. Or maybe not. Nobody knows because the state DEP’s Wildlife Division hasn’t tallied them:

Coyotes are difficult to count because they only settle down when they are giving birth during the spring, according to Paul Rego, also a wildlife biologist with the DEP. Rego estimates the population in Connecticut ranges from 2,000 to 4,000. The number of complaints about coyotes received by the DEP has risen over the last few years to around 400 a year, he says, though it’s unclear whether that number represents more contact with humans or a success in the initiative to encourage reports of a sighting.

Coincidentally, I did some preliminary research back in November for an article on coyotes before becoming distracted by my feature on Long Beach West. I interviewed Rego and at the time he had no idea what the coyote population of Connecticut was. He said that while sightings and complaints were more frequent, he felt the population was stable.

I asked him how he could justify this belief without having a head count, particularly in light of coyotes’ high reproductive rate. He replied that once coyotes filled available habitat (one estimate I was given by another source said coyotes prefer ten square miles for every mated pair), their numbers would be kept in check.

Yes — but there’s no reason to think they’ve reached that point yet. With abundant food — garbage, deer (another problem here in CT), small pets, rodents — and without predators, there’s little evidence to suggest coyotes have reached equilibrium between reproduction and mortality. Habitat only serves as a check on population when there’s too few resources, but by all accounts Connecticut coyotes are well-fed and thriving.

It would seem after my interview Rego collected himself enough to be able to provide the story’s author a more substantial answer than he could give me, though apparently he still couldn’t say whether their numbers were growing. That’s because only a study — not a gut feeling — can tell us if the population is stable or otherwise.

Photo of a coyote skeleton preserved in the brea. Taken at the Page Museum in Los Angeles.

Long Beach Mess

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My feature on Long Beach West, an abandoned collection of cottages on a barrier beach in Stratford, Connecticut is the cover story of this week’s Fairfield County Weekly.

It’s probably not terribly interesting if you don’t live in Stratford, but if you do, the story may come as a shock. The agreement to sell the beach to the federal government was sold to the citizens on the promise that Stratford would receive $10 million for the land. But as I show, that number is a made-up one:

Lisa Bassani, project manager for the Trust for Public Land, says that TPL and Stratford each did their own appraisals, resulting in two different numbers — one lower (TPL’s) and one higher (Stratford’s). They “split it down the middle” and mutually settled on a value of $10 million.

Bassani says TPL will submit a new appraisal to the Fish and Wildlife Service that adheres to Yellow Book standards. French says the appraisal must then be approved by the Appraisal Services Directorate, an office of the Department of the Interior. The Service cannot pay more than the figure listed in the appraisal — which could be less than $10 million, especially considering TPL’s previous appraisal.

I asked Ms. Bassani: If the FWS values the land at less than $10 million, will TPL still pay $10 mil to Stratford and then sell the land at a loss to FWS, perhaps using grants or donations to make up the difference? She said no. So if the Yellow Book appraisal comes back with a lesser valuation, there’s no way Stratford is going to receive $10 million — bad news to the two-thirds of Stratford voters who agreed to sell the land in a 2008 referendum.

My photo essay of Long Beach West is here.

Updates

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The end of the year seems like a fine time to phone in some updates:

Pirelli Building. In my January article for Connecticut Magazine about historically designated but otherwise derelict buildings, I reported that passers-by of the Pirelli Building in New Haven could see “shattered windows and Venetian blinds askew.” I interviewed the sales manager of IKEA New Haven, which owns the building, for the piece so he knew it was in the works. It seems to have had an effect: Since then, the windows have been repaired and the blinds removed, making the building appear less forsaken.

Megafauna Extinctions. This story in SciAm has a good summary of the latest research to pinpoint when mammoths, mastodons, and other large American Pleistocene animals went extinct. It leans toward the overkill hypothesis at the end but I think the Clovis mystery just underscores the complication of the extinction question: not only are we not sure just when various species vanished (this much shallower article, for example, lumps them all together but it’s not clear if humans ever laid eyes on American lions or sabercats), but we really don’t know when the first immigrants arrived in the New World.

Compact Fluorescent Light Bulbs. I’ve been using CFLs throughout my house for over two years now and my love affair with them is devolving into spiteful asides and unflattering comparisons to previous partners. The biggest sore point is their unreliable lifespans. “CFL makers claim the bulbs have lifetimes of 10,000 hours each,” but I’ve had bulbs die in a matter of weeks. This may be an issue of poor QC rather than with the technology itself but it certainly offsets any savings accrued by buying more-expensive-yet-longer-lasting CFLs over incandescents. Not to mention that CFLs’ dim glow when first switched on in cold temperatures — and by “cold,” I mean 65° F or lower — often compels me to leave lights on in rooms I’m not occupying so I can see what the hey-hey I’m doing if I go back in there. A major criticism of incandescents is that they waste much of their energy on heat rather than light, but having experienced the alternative, I’m not sure it’s a waste after all.

Photo above taken at Pleasure Beach in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

Video of Easton Raid Undermines Official Story

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The Connecticut Post has published a video taken during the 2008 tactical police raid on a house in Easton, Connecticut, which culminated in the shooting death of Gonzalo Guizan. Police stated that Guizan, a friend who was visiting homeowner Ronald Terebesi, Jr. at the time, attacked the lead officer, provoking the officer to shoot Guizan. A summary of events can be found in my story for the Fairfield County Weekly.

The video doesn’t show much but the details are in the audio:

This is significant. According to the state attorney’s report, windows were broken and two stun grenades detonated inside the house. The door was broken down and a third grenade tossed through. The stack then entered.

After the door was forced, Sweeney says he stepped into the den and “felt high-velocity impacts on both his left boot and the shield, and thought he was being fired upon and had, in fact, been shot,” the report reads. Sweeney tried to pin Terebesi and Guizan with the shield in his left hand. “While Terebesi pulled on the shield,” says the report, “Guizan proceeded to grab the officer’s right hand in an apparent effort to wrest his pistol away. … Sweeney, beginning to lose his grip and fearing that he was about to lose control of his weapon, fired it until he was free of the man’s grasp.”

Nothing corroborates Sweeney’s version of events. No fingerprints or DNA were found on Sweeney’s gun. To my knowledge, the shield was never tested for Terebesi’s fingerprints. No one else saw Guizan attack or wrestle with Sweeney. And in fact Sweeney didn’t fire until he freed his weapon. This is a logical fallacy: the report says the pistol jammed after six shots. Sweeney fired until his gun broke.

Did the stack enter the house too quickly, resulting in Sweeney being struck by their own grenade? Did he become confused and disoriented as a result and wildly open fire? Was the story about an aggressive Guizan fabricated afterwards? The state’s attorney didn’t think so. He absolved the police of any criminal wrongdoing and then promptly retired.

In the video, the sound of the door breaking occurs at the 1:18 mark. The bullets stop at 1:20.

Two seconds.

Blackbeard Artifacts Displayed

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Reporters were given a gander at some of the artifacts raised from Blackbeard’s ship:

David Moore, nautical archaeologist with the N.C. Maritime Museum, said all of the artifacts date to the early 18th century, the correct time for the shipwreck, which was in November 1718.  Two artifacts have dates inscribed, a bell from 1705 and a cannon from 1713.  There are four anchors of the correct vintage at the site, and about a quarter million lead shot have been recovered.  He said other ships would not necessarily be so heavily armed, and that this is likely leftover armament from a pirate ship.

The article goes on to speculate that Queen Anne’s Revenge could be to North Carolina tourism what the HL Hunley is to South Carolina tourism. But judging from this year’s field report, that may be some time coming since funding for major recovery is not apparent:

Nearly two feet of sand has been deposited in most places since the lowest point recorded in 2005 and is at levels not seen since the shipwreck’s discovery in 1996. With no funding to continue full recovery operations, this is a good development. When sand covers artifacts it is generally conducive to artifact preservation because it puts them in an anaerobic environment and buffers impacts from currents and critters.