Coot management with a gentle touch

Prior to superintendent Wayne Mills' arrival at La Cumbre Country Club in Santa Barbara, California, coot control was a contentious issue. The club had worked through all of the legal procedures to obtain a depredation permit that allowed them to kill the 1,000 coots that migrated to the course every winter by netting the birds, placing them into plastic bags and exposing them to carbon dioxide. But when citizens from the surrounding community observed this approach, they were up in…