Airport Seeks to Evict Band of Coyotes

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. —  A clueless clan of coyotes is making a dangerous nuisance of itself at the South Lake Tahoe Airport, finding nice places to sun themselves that happen to be the same places the planes use.

At least a dozen adults and six pups are undeterred by an eight-foot security fence that they nimbly dig under, according to airport spokeswoman Janis Brand.

“They have no fear and seem to be playing dodge ball,” she said. “A Lear jet had to come to a screeching halt and several single-engine planes had to abort takeoffs. We’ve even had to delay commercial flights, which is expensive.”

The city-owned airport is under orders by the Federal Aviation Administration to have all coyotes off the runways by the end of summer.

“It would be inexcusable to have an accident that could kill a pilot or passengers,” Brand said.

Barbed wire in the fence holes and regular patrols are no longer deterrents, she said.

Now the plan is to have Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care take the pups and release them outside the airport, she said, then block the culverts where they are denning.

A final resort, if that does not work as summer draws to a close, is to call in the California Department of Fish and Game to relocate or destroy the animals, she said.

Nineteen coyotes were destroyed after seven people were bitten between March 14 and May 28 in the casino area on the Nevada side of the south shore, said Tom Hall, assistant director of Nevada Animal Damage Control.

Since a public education campaign stressed not feeding wild animals, there have been no more bites, Hall said.

“We don’t have a coyote problem. It’s a people problem,” said Cheryl Millham, executive director of Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care.