By: Tom Port

 

With “Can Do Sandhu” out of town, Past President Dennis Harvey opened the meeting by reminding us that the R.I. President is Ian H.S. Riseley, of Victoria, Australia, and his theme for the year is “Rotary, Making a Difference.”

 

Our Greeter, PP Tom Port, led us in the Salute to the Flag and gave us his Thoughts for the Day, first by George Bernard Shaw, "Progress is impossible without change, and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything."  Then by Winston Churchill, “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.”

 

PP Don Jones led the singing of the Patriotic Song; he chose “God Bless America.” 

Visiting Rotarians:  Michael Roberts, who has been a member of the Berkeley club for seven years, but a change in his job is causing him to look for a club to join, closer to his Danville home.  We all hope he’ll succeed in finding a good club!

 

Other Visitors:  Jalal Afifi, formerly with Chevron for 25 years; now with Morgan Stanley. 

 

Announcements: 

 

Dennis announced that the Crow Canyon Country Club will be accepting donations that will be sent to her sister club, in Santa Rosa, to aid victims of that tremendous fire raging in the North Bay.  The deadline for this delivery was 9:00 am, Friday, October 13.  However, Rotarians wishing to make a donation are encouraged to contact the club to see if another shipment is pending, or to find similar efforts being conducted by churches and civic groups.  Household items such as diapers, baby food, non-perishable snacks, wipes, bottled water, socks, batteries, blankets, etc. are in great need.

 

Norbet Walz announced that, while the final tally is as yet incomplete, the Online Auction for Education is likely to net roughly $100,000.  Also, it was noted that the Run for Education had about 8,500 entrants this year!  Chris Gayler assisted with the Run this year, and, since he has been helping in many ways, Dennis asked for a round of applause for this stalwart Rotarian!

In PP Dr. Bill’s absence, Dennis noted that the Third Grade Dictionary Project is underway, with distributions scheduled for the upcoming week at the various elementary schools for which we are responsible.

 

PP Kathy Gailey reminded all that the Veteran’s Day Lunch this year will be held on November 9, and will once again be hosted by the San Ramon Regional Medical Center, thanks to PP Gary Sloan.  Various veteran organizations and active military units have been contacted about attending, and any Rotarian wishing to invite a veteran friend/colleague/family member is certainly welcome to do so.

 

 

Good News/Fine Free:  None

 

 

Recognitions:   PP Guy Greco for a birthday, which was celebrated by a party and a family dinner; and John Milich for Teri’s birthday, which was celebrated at Café Esin.

 

 

 

With our scheduled speaker stuck in the North Bay area, car packed, and awaiting a possible evacuation order, this Scribe was asked to speak about his favorite subject, Living with your Back Yard Wildlife!.

 

I have been volunteering at the Lindsay Wildlife Hospital for nine years and have learned quite a bit about the wildlife living in close proximity to us in our suburban neighborhoods.  Most homeowners know a bit about the most common animals, particularly pests such as rats, but are much less aware of other critters that can be either beneficial or harmful, and quite often scary when encountered.

 

First, a couple of State Laws that need to be understood by everyone:

 

 

Then there’s the question of why would anyone even want to trap anything in their back yard.  If the food and habitat is there for that critter, trapping it and killing it will only open that territory for another of its kind to move in; you’ve accomplished nothing.  To rid your yard of an unwanted resident you must remove the food source(s) and the habitat.  As a for instance, leaving cat food out overnight and having a pile of lumber, brush, dense juniper bushes or heavy growths of ivy on your property is a standing invitation for skunks, raccoons, opossums, rats and mice to visit you nightly and/or to take up residence.

 

Similarly, if you have openings into your attic spaces or into the crawl space under your house, do NOT blame the critter for taking up residence.  Blame yourself for not properly maintaining your property!  This also happens frequently when fireplace chimney caps are missing or broken.  If the fireplace is not in use, particularly in the colder months, a mommy squirrel feels the warmth coming up from the room below and decides it’s a perfect place for a nest!

 

Now, if you want to kill mice and rats that have invaded your home (almost always do to your poor maintenance practices) please use an old-fashioned snap trap.  It is the quickest and most certain way of killing that pest humanely!  Do NOT use either poison pellets or sticky traps.  Sticky traps are a horrible, totally inhumane way to kill your target pest, plus you are just as likely to trap other critters such as (beneficial) gopher snakes or lizards!

 

As for poison pellets, there is nothing more harmful on the market!  They are an anti-coagulant which causes an animal to bleed to death, usually internally.  However, as it is dying, it acts erratically and is likely to be “taken” by a raptor or even a pet cat.  The poison is now taken up by the raptor and will likely kill it (and sometimes all of its babies if they use it to feed them).  So, for the sake of ridding yourself of one rodent you are killing the very animals that regularly prey of rodents.  One owl, for instance, will kill and eat from 3 to 6 rodents per night!  This makes poisons the height of foolishness as a pest control method!

 

Another method of controlling damage done by “pests,” such as birds or squirrels, is to drape netting over that tree or bush.  If that netting touches the ground you are very likely to trap another beneficial back yard resident, a gopher snake.  The name tells you what this critter is good for!

 

There is another beneficial animal out there that you should be happy to have in  your yard, the opossum!  These timid, nocturnal marsupials  --  yes, their young are raised in mommy’s pouch  --  will keep your yard clean of dead things, snails, fallen fruit, and sometimes live things.  You rarely see them, but if you come upon one it is likely to go into its “I’m-one-tough-hombre” mode and snarl at you with a wide open mouth, showing you its 50 sharp teeth.  Give it a chance to get away and it will; happily!

 

And remember what I’ve told you three dozen times:  No tree trimming, or heavy trimming on dense bushes, until November/December!  Nothing is actively raising its babies in those months.

 

 

Raffle:   The Greeter’s Gift of $20.00, was won by Jerry Marrs, and the opportunity to draw that white marble was won by our guest, Mike Roberts.  He did not get it so he only walked off with $10.00!  The prize next week will be $80.00.

 

 

Next Week’s Program:    Our speaker next week will be District Governor, Gary Vilhauer;  our Greater will be Marv Remmich.