Encountering Wildlife in Your Community? Tactics to Mitigate the Issue

It’s not only Florida associations with alligators or California communities with mountain lions that can run into wildlife issues. Suburbs across the country are seeing coyotes and other unwelcome visitors.

Managers have been recently reporting more wildlife sightings and episodes than in the past. “We live near the forest, so we normally deal with deer and skunks,” says Katie Anderson, CEO of Aperion Management Group LLC, which manages around 65 associations in Central Oregon.

“What we’ve seen is that, as the wildfires have gotten worse over the last few years, we’re having more interaction with animals like cougars and mountain lions,” she says. “We had a black bear cub that wandered through a neighborhood.

“This year, more than ever, we’re sending out warnings about cougar sightings and to keep your pets inside. It’s a different level of vigilance.”

Brad van Rooyen, president of HomeRiver Group-Florida, the management company for about 160 associations in the state, says development is a major driver of this trend in his area.

“What’s happening especially on our south and west coasts is a lot of development—whether industrial, retail, or housing—and it’s pushing wildlife closer and closer as you take away their habitat.”

And the threats aren’t limited to pets and property—humans are at risk, too. “People get attacked a couple times a year because they’re walking around a pond at dusk with their dogs and the alligator in the pond sees a small mammal,” van Rooyen says.

So what can you and your association clients do when facing a wildlife dilemma?

In our new article, our association experts reveal the solutions they’ve developed to deal with wildlife encounters in their communities and offer tactics you and your association clients can use when confronting wildlife issues of your own.

Read the full article here: Where the Wild Things Are (Increasingly, in HOAs!)

Best regards,
Matt Humphrey
President