Welcome to Bayshore Place!
Bear in BSP!
As you probably know, we've had a visitor show up in
BSP during May - a black bear. Here's some info from FL Wildlife:
Thank you for contacting FWC about the bear you have seen in your
neighborhood. Northwest Florida is an area where bears have and will always be
present; our goal is to prevent them from lingering in residential areas by
providing technical assistance and outreach/education.
The very best approach to prevent bear
encounters is to secure attractants that bring bears into neighborhoods.
Household garbage is extremely high in calories and provides bears with a large
caloric reward for very little effort. Black bears do not view humans as prey,
but can and will learn to associate humans with food if they are continually
rewarded with free meals from garbage cans, bird feeders, or pet food bowls.
Once they lose their natural fear of humans and learn to treat them as a source
for a handout, they can become a nuisance and a hazard. Scaring bears away when
they are spotted will help reinforce their natural fear and let them know they
are unwelcome. Trapping and removal of bears is a last resort; it does not
become a viable option until after every effort has been made to secure the
attractant. Getting in front of the situation before it becomes a nuisance issue
resulting in garbage-habituated bears is the number one most effective approach
to managing and mitigating human-wildlife conflict. Relocating bears is rarely
an effective option as the bear will highly likely return to the area, another
bear will move into the area, or the bear will simply become someone else’s
problem in another part of the panhandle. The panhandle of Florida is bear
habitat, and the growing human population in the area will only increase
human-bear interaction if we do not work to secure our attractants that entice
bears out of the woods and into neighborhoods. We strongly encourage finding
long term solutions to discourage all bears from entering the neighborhoods to
begin with. Other points to consider:
The FWC has experienced a three-fold
increase in the number of human-bear conflict calls over the past several years.
This is due in part to the increase in bear population but also to the rise in
human development. However, in one neighborhood at Hurlburt Field outside of
Eglin AFB, we reduced the number of bear-related incidents by 70% after
the property management company and waste services came together to offer
universal bear proof cans for residents’ use. Now, the only calls that come from
that neighborhood are the result of a resident forgetting to latch their can.
Otherwise, the problems have been completely eradicated. That is a big step!
Bears that climb fences to access garbage
cans, bird feeders, grills, and other attractants can be deterred by erecting
electric fencing around the outside of the fence. One strand low and
another at chest-height that are offset from the fence using 6” insulators can
be very effective at keeping bears out and preventing property damage. Watch a
short video about how to install electric fencing here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KkLxi5KZ8cY.
I have also attached a link to assist you with installing an electric fence.
You could also try building garbage caddies
to prevent bears from making a mess:
https://myfwc.com/media/1883/caddyinstructions.pdf
Ensuring bears don’t linger in an area is a
community effort and we really hope to get the whole neighborhood to be
bear-wise. Many counties have bear resistant trash cans offered through their
waste service providers. Please contact your waste service provider if you feel
you need these types of trash cans, but be advised that there is sometimes an
additional charge for these types of containers. You are also able to use
retrofit kits for your trash cans, which are an inexpensive option for securing
your trash. I have included an attachment with details on this. If you, or any
neighbors, need additional assistance with bear-proof trash cans or information
on how to obtain those, please let me know and feel free to provide my contact
information with anyone who needs further assistance in the area. It is our goal
to help alleviate human-bear conflicts and help residents live in concert with
the growing bear population; we appreciate your cooperation and initiative in
working toward an acceptable solution. Please let me know how we can provide you
with any further technical or hands-on assistance and feel free to visit our
website at http://myfwc.com/bear.
The Youngs are departing...
The Youngs are departing the neighborhood and we
are looking for a person or people to assume the responsibilities currently
held by them. Responsibilities include:
1. Coordinate the date for the Fall yard sale.
Place and pay for an ad in the NWF Daily News for Thurs-Sat. Place and
retrieve the 5 announcement signs on John Sims Pkwy and Bayshore Dr.
Store the signs when not in use.
2. Coordinate a group effort to clean and
maintain the entrance as needed. Usually done once in Mar/April and
once in July/Aug. Collect and maintain funds for pine straw purchase
and any other goods or services as needed. Examples are purchase of
flowers or bushes and hiring of work not accomplished by residents like
sidewalk cleaning. We have several hundred dollars left from last
year’s collection. This should be more than enough to get through this
year barring any unusually large projects.
3. Sweep pine straw off entrance sidewalks, power
wash portions of the walk not done by others, clean trash and debris, and
rake/remove leaves around the center island, spray weed killer, and cut
small vines from bushes. These tasks were accomplished as needed and
not on a regular schedule.
4. Coordinate actions with the Niceville
Public Works Dept such as power washing the entrance walls and signs once a
year when tree droppings or mold appear, replace lights when out of order,
request use of the water source when needed, and any other special projects
such as security signs.
5. Represent BSP to the Niceville Police
community liaison officer.
6. Check on the BSP website and provide
info to the webmaster for posting. Pay webmaster for the annual web
site renewal fee. Post the BSP website info sign at the 3 way stop 2-3
times a year.
Bayshore Bunco
Ladies, want to meet your neighbors? Join us monthly
for Bunco! We normally play on the first
Thursday of each month at 6:30pm, but that does sometimes change. Don't
miss out on all the fun!
Email Carine at
thecarine@hotmail.com for more details.
See the Bayshore Bunco Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/3070807663144610/
Services listing
Under the NEIGHBORHOOD menu you'll find a listing of folks within the
community that offer baby sitting, pet setting, lawn services, and other
services. If you would like to be listed, please send an email with your
information to
bspadmin@themailsite.com. Please support your fellow neighbors when you
can!
Bayshore Place Covenants
As requested by some of our residents, I've uploaded a copy of the
Bayshore Place Covenants to the website and listed them under the
NEIGHBORHOOD menu. These are for Phase X-b and are dated July 2005.
They're the most recent covenants available from the Okaloosa County Clerk
of Courts.
Bayshore Place Mailing List
An emailing list has been set up to easily pass information throughout
the neighborhood. Just send an email to
bayshoreplace@themailsite.com
and your email will be mass-mailed to everyone on the mailing list. Note
that you must be a member of the list to send to the list -- that will avoid
us receiving a lot of spam.
If you're not on the list, you can join the list by sending an email to
bspadmin@themailsite.com.
Enter something like "Add to BSP Mail List" and specify which email address(es)
you want added to the list. It might take a day or so to be added.
If you don't want to be on the list anymore, you can unsubscribe by emailing
that same address and letting us know which email addresses to remove.
Please pass the word to your neighbors who may not know about the mail list
or this website!