About
A conversation, not a verdict.
Coyotes are a growing part of daily life in Orange County, and the stakes are rising — more pets going missing, and real grief with each. This Council is where the grieving, the environmentalist, the expert, and the executive trade feelings and information. The ultimate goal: a solution everyone can live with. No time to waste. Let's begin.
Why we exist
Coyotes live among us in Orange County, and the friction is real and rising. Too often the conversation jumps straight to its two loudest reflexes, leaving little room to think it through. This Council is a modest attempt to make that room — to bring residents, wildlife experts, and municipal leaders to one table, ground the talk in evidence, and keep it respectful. We can't promise the outcome; that will depend on the input, tone, persistence, patience, and open minds everyone brings. What we can promise is to convene it honestly — and to start now.
Four tiers, one table
The conversation works best when everyone affected is in the room — and every voice is heard.
Residents
Neighbors grouped by city, sharing on-the-ground experience and local concerns.
Municipalities
City staff and officials who set policy and put plans into practice.
Experts & professionals
Wildlife biologists, vets, animal-control, and shelter staff — grounding the conversation in evidence and frontline data.
Stewards
Admins who keep the dialogue open, respectful, and moving toward action.
How we work
These are our commitments — about how the conversation runs, and about making sure every voice in it is heard.
Every side has a seat
We bring residents, officials, and experts to one table, and we work to see that every perspective has a place in the conversation — especially the ones easy to overlook.
Assumptions welcome — and questioned
We bring data, research, and lived experience into the open, and we invite every assumption — our own included — to be examined. The best conversations start when someone is willing to rethink what they were sure of.
We convene; the table concludes
Our role is to host the discussion and describe what we hear. The conclusions belong to the people in the room.
Open to every community
Taking part stays within reach for everyone, whatever their time, money, or language — and our tools are built that way, so more voices are heard.
Our Board of Advisors
We wanted this conversation informed by many disciplines rather than a single point of view. So we began with an advisory board spanning the fields this work touches — urban coyote science, field research, coexistence-program design, humane practice, animal ethics, conflict mapping, environmental justice, management realism, and risk communication.
Urban Coyote Science
What urban coyotes actually do — behavior, diet, territory, and population dynamics, grounded in long-term tracking data.
Southern California Field Research
Region-specific research on coyote behavior, diet, and conflict across Los Angeles and Orange counties.
Coexistence Program Design
Designing and running community coexistence programs; non-lethal strategy, education, and advocacy.
Municipal Implementation
How cities actually stand up programs — community hazing, ordinance design, and tiered response protocols.
Animal Ethics
The moral dimension of coexistence — the cognitive and emotional lives of coyotes, and humane practice.
Conflict Mapping & Citizen Science
Incident-map design and data quality — guarding against reporting bias and fear amplification.
Urban Ecology & Environmental Justice
Equity in who is heard and served, so tools don't quietly favor only affluent, well-connected neighborhoods.
Non-Lethal Deterrence & Management Realism
What the evidence says about deterrents — and the hard cases where management decisions get tested.
Risk Communication
Informing residents without amplifying panic — alerts, messaging, and calibrating public concern.
In full transparency: these are nine expertise seats, each modeled on the published work of leading authorities in that discipline. It is a way to weigh what we hear against the best of what each field knows, and to surface our blind spots before they harden into assumptions — not a claim that any individual expert endorses us. The disciplines do not always point the same way. That is the point. As real advisors join, we'll name them here with their consent.
Help us build the human board
The AI board is the beginning, not the destination. We're inviting the real thing — biologists and practitioners, municipal officials ready to pilot real tools, residents ready for a fuller conversation than the two loudest reflexes allow, and stewards willing to keep that conversation moving.
Join the Council