There’s a burgeoning city on the outskirts of the east San Francisco Bay Area.  It’s an agricultural mecca that in the last decade or so has discovered what an infusion of dollars from people fleeing exorbitant costs of living on the opposite sides of the bay can do to a rural setting.  It’s a city that is famous for America’s number one field crop and appropriately holds on to an iconic festival celebrating corn.  It’s a place where just down the road past the cornfields and orchards one can find a handful of dirt on the floor fruit and vegetable stands.  It’s a location that draws visitors aching for a bygone era when local food was indeed local, and picking out peaches did not involve a grocery store.  The city is Brentwood and it is a vital component to maintaining a Burrowing Owl population in the Bay Area.  When combined with Antioch, Oakley, Livermore and other outlying municipalities, they indeed make a case that this is the Bay Area’s Burrowing Owl stronghold.

But with the arrival of dollars and people, agricultural land and open spaces that once dominated the landscape are finding themselves transformed from suitable habitat to hardscapes that force Burrowing Owls to eke out a living in parking lots, along highways and even in the future site of the next peddler at the local mall.

Strip malls attract people which in turn draw in cars like a magnet.  I wish I could say the following was a hypothetical situation crafted to make a point, but sadly it has become reality.  In the case of the Streets of Brentwood, Burrowing Owls produced a family next to a two lane road that connects the mall’s parking lot to the main street.  As I’m sure you can surmise, juvenile Burrowing Owls learning to fly have become fodder for speeding cars.  After a heartbreaking incident, I met with management to propose the installation of caution signs as a means to remind patrons to slow down and be on the watch for low flying Burrowing Owls. 

Thanks to Jane Reid, General Manager of The Streets of Brentwood, the mall paid for and installed two caution signs on August 19th as a way to help safeguard the owls.  Since the installation, we are accident free!

I and the Burrowing Owl Conservation Network are excited to have their support and that of the many residents who were helping us keep an eye on these owls.  We are looking forward to working with this business in the future.

As you may recall, in April I rescued a Burrowing Owl who had become trapped in the rafters of Mainland in the Streets of Brentwood.  The quick thinking conservation-minded staff made a big difference for this owl who was returned to his burrow.  You can read the story and see the pictures HERE.

Antioch, CA (July 26, 2011) – Burrowing Owl Conservation Network has been awarded a grant for the manufacture of four interpretive signs to be installed at the 24-acre Prewett Family Park Burrowing Owl Habitat Preserve in Antioch, CA.  The Board of Supervisors approved the Fish and Wildlife Committee’s recommendation for dispersal of grant funds from the Contra Costa County Fish and Wildlife Propagation Fund, which is entirely supported by fine revenues resulting from violations of Fish and Game Code.

This newly created wildlife and habitat preserve has a number of designated pedestrian access trails that allow and encourage visitors to observe from a distance burrowing owls, other raptors and wildlife that inhabit this suburban grassland ecosystem year-round.

“As burrowing owls are a California Species of Special Concern and have witnessed steep declines in the San Francisco Bay Area and California, we believe community education and outreach is a vital part of their survival and protection of their habitat. We have found many people are unaware of the existence of burrowing owls, have never seen them in the wild, or are simply unaware that Contra Costa County is fortunate to have them as year-round residents,” said Scott Artis, Executive Director of Burrowing Owl Conservation Network.

“As such, these signs will provide species and habitat information and will be used to inform visitors and complement a museum-quality burrowing owl diorama and educational program that we are currently raising much needed funds for.”

The interpretive signs will serve as a means by which the value of protecting, conserving, and preserving wildlife and habitat can be passed on to county residents and visitors.  Because burrowing owls rely on fossorial mammals (e.g. ground squirrels) for the construction of their burrows, the four interpretive signs will also highlight the interdependency between species and demonstrate the value of protecting functioning ecosystems. 

For more information and to donate, please visit http://burrowingowlconservation.org and indicate that you would like your donation designated to the Prewett Family Park Burrowing Owl Habitat Preserve.

I had a rough week.

The weekend turned out pretty good, but damned if the five days separating Sunday and Saturday didn’t rock the boat of life a bit last week.  In the most grandest of schemes it is a minor bump, but I really am expending energy on other things;  so much so that I was banking on a little consistency.  But, my use of autopilot is not necessarily going to work as well as intended as we approach the completion of another revolution around our star.  But what should I expect as this is LIFE you know.  And I’ve also heard that IT is full of surprises.

But since we are all here to see what’s up with wildlife, or perhaps burrowing owls, I’ll leave the  weekday woes behind and focus on a couple of inspirational weekend events  that made me proud to call myself a conservationist.  There was a little teaching, a little learning, and a whole lot of passion.

The teaching…

In case you haven’t heard, there is a burrowing owl preserve in my burgeoning city of Antioch.  It just didn’t appear out of nowhere, but there certainly was a some magic involved.  Dee Vieira, a burrowing owl advocate and our East County Program Manager at BOCN, used diplomacy, common sense, and lots of hard work to garner a 24 acre preserve for burrowing owls at the site of our city’s new community center. 

They said it couldn’t be done, they said it shouldn’t be done, and they said it wasn’t suitable habitat.  But the evidence speaks for itself as 3 pairs successfully raised a total of 19 young this year.  I think we’re on to something here!  And there’s more as the city has given us the green light to develop a burrowing owl educational diorama that will be permanently on display in the community center.  As the dedication was being held on November 13th and we need time and dollars to complete the diorama, the project manager granted us permission to set up a table display for the ceremony.  In short, we were able to spread the word to all the visitors and dignitaries, and highlight the proper way to mitigate for burrowing owls. Considering the options, it truly is a win-win; especially if communities such as ours want to see burrowing owls within city limits in the future.

After I started writing the post I realized this section called “The Teaching” was more than just about informing the community with our table display, but with 19 fledged young I do believe there is a take home lesson somewhere in these lines of text.  Do you see it? I hope Planning Departments do!

The Learning…

I recently joined the Board of Directors of the John Muir Association and I am most definitely looking forward to preserving “the legacy of John Muir through education, preservation, advocacy and stewardship.”  As part of the organization, I had the pleasure of attending the 33rd Annual  John Muir Conservation Awards.  Simply incredible! 

Shelton Johnson, author of Gloryland and featured in the Ken Burns’ The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, delivered a truly inspirational speech that left the crowd in awe.  Had I not been so engaged in his words I would have left immediately to pursue some nighttime burrowing owl conservation activities or maybe make an immediate trek to Yosemite just to gaze upon the stars while lying on the forest floor.  I had quotes, I had recordings, and I had a plan to share with everyone a bit of conservation  motivation.  And if you look closely there was the small three letter word “had” that began the previous sentence.  Yes, technology let me down and Shelton Johnson’s exact words have been lost, but the impression will not expire.  I have the passion and I want you to have it too.  Go to a National Park, let your eyes follow a redwood to the clouds, let your ears hear the wind pass through the needles of a Saguaro cactus, let your fingers feel the cold of freshly fallen snow, let your tongue taste the salt of a crashing wave, and let your nose smell the aroma of a field of wildflowers.

A little appreciation can go a long way for our wildlands and wildlife.

As I was wallowing in my musings yesterday I found intermittent opportunities to walk amongst towering trees and gaze upon virgin forested lands.  I could feel the vibrations as the lungs expanded and contracted in unison with each advancing step; the sound of needles and leaves crunching under the buck’s heavy stride.  The native peoples were at one with the natural world, but changes to this regime had already been set in motion during 18th century America.  The ramifications of which are easily seen when I blinked back to reality.  Yet it is not only the sounds of this pristine environment drawing me back for periodic glances, but a soul penetrating soundtrack…

A single violin hovers in the background and exudes its dominance over the beat of a subdued drum.  A fire rages from within the confines of the fort’s timbered walls while passions gather momentum amid a break in battle.  Soon the somber melody is accompanied by the orchestra’s violins. Although masked by the ensemble, the original lone string still has my attention with its long, unrelenting chords. 

“The Kiss” by Trevor Jones is the story of America’s wilderness.  Beginning as a simple, yet harmonic arrangement, a single entity if you will, that becomes more complex, sobering and even melancholy as it passes the centuries with man.  And as the timeline comes to an end we find that it has dwindled back to that simple, harmonic arrangement from where things began; only this time the remaining single entity is man.

I don’t watch Michael Mann’s The Last of the Mohicans; I hear it.  I don’t watch nature; I feel it.

A century elapses from the setting of Cooper’s narrative and I’m now marching with Muir in the Sierra.  I could personally elaborate, but his are the words I cherish.

It is easier to feel than to realize, or in any way explain, Yosemite grandeur.  The magnitudes of the rocks and trees and streams are so delicately harmonized they are mostly hidden.  Sheer precipices three thousand feet high are fringed with tall trees growing close like grass on the brow of a lowland hill, and extending along the feet of these precipices a ribbon of meadow a mile wide and seven or eight long, that seems like a strip a farmer might mow in less than a day. Waterfalls, five hundred to one or two thousand feet high, are so subordinated to the mighty cliffs over which they pour that they seem like wisps of smoke, gentle as floating clouds, though their voices fill the valley and make the rocks tremble…Thus every attempt to appreciate any one feature is beaten down by the overwhelming influence of all the others.

John Muir, My First Summer in the Sierra

And as the cover of this book closed and technology once again filled my senses, it became quite apparent that alone we are not.  We have the wisdom and experiences of our predecessors to guide our actions, and it is something worth fighting to retain.  ‘Tis the summation of my reasoning for joining the Board of Directors of the John Muir Association as we desperately need to “…build understanding of the important legacy given us by John Muir, a legacy of appreciation for nature and a desire to protect our planet’s important natural resources.”

It’s my calling and I hope to make it yours as well.

I’ve actually been holding on to these photos for about a month, and I guess I started thinking about them as I was contemplating the contents of my latest post.  And I will officially attribute the chosen theme to Pat Bumstead over at Bird Canada who made me laugh with a reply to my recent tweet concerning the final touches being put on the inaugural edition The Burrow Guardian (Burrowing Owl Conservation Network’s newsletter).

@patbumstead   Good thing u have so much free time….-:)

I do appreciate some good humor and great owl supporters!  Thus, with so many things that I need to get done over the Labor Day weekend for burrowing owls, Pat’s comment fresh on my mind, the incredible efforts of Heidi Perryman (and the rest of the crew) over at Worth A Dam to safeguard the urban beavers and garner approval for the installation of some beaver sculptures, and EVERYTHING else that I can’t even begin to name, I thought it most appropriate to share some beaver kit photos.  And they sure were busy that evening gathering willow.

So here’s to all those busy birders, conservationists, and online buddies out there working to make a difference for wildlife.  Happy Labor Day y’all and enjoy the long weekend.

Fellow blogger, science lover and conservationist Allie Wilkinson of Oh, For the Love of Science is making “Tracks for Tigers” and recently participated in the Wildlife Conservation Society’s second annual Run for the Wild.  And it goes further than just a 5K run as she is working to raise funds for tiger conservation efforts.

I could go on, but why not pay a visit to her Wildlife Conservation Society’s fundraising page before time runs out (through the 28th) and learn about this conservation event.

A short video with facts and footage describing the decline and recovery of the Bald Eagle through the help of nationwide conservation efforts.  The Bald Eagle is an amazing story of conservation success as its population declined from an estimated high of 500,000 individuals to only 417 nesting pairs in the lower 48 states.

I guess I really don’t need an excuse to throw out a favorite passage of mine from the Endangered Species Act (ESA).  Heck, our Government plainly states a reason to conserve wildlife in peril and recognizes the varied and vital roles these species play in maintaining the health of our Nation’s ecosystems.  But there was and is something conspicuously absent from that 1973 landmark document.

“The Congress finds and declares that various species of fish, wildlife, and plants in the United States have been rendered extinct as a consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation; other species of fish, wildlife, and plants have been so depleted in numbers that they are in danger of or threatened with extinction; these species of fish, wildlife, and plants are of esthetic, ecological, educational, historical, recreational, and scientific value to the Nation and its people…”

Prior to becoming an endangered or threatened species, many of those listed under the ESA had a degree of commonality about them.  Perhaps they were species routinely observed or occurred in such vast numbers that who would have guessed such a “common species” could be disappearing from our National landscapes (i.e. Chinook salmon). So what is conspicuously absent from protection…those “common” species we take for granted, those species who currently have healthy populations, and those plants and animals just as vulnerable to overharvesting and habitat loss as the ones who currently populate the list of endangered and threatened species.

“Right now, there are few incentives for public land managers to focus on and maintain ecologically healthy wild animal populations … to keep the lifeblood of wild places flowing. As a result, we often learn that a population or an entire ecosystem is in trouble after the damage is done because we haven’t been monitoring and protecting wildlife.”

Amy Vedder, Executive VP of Conservation for The Wilderness Society

Recognizing that a need exists to ensure today’s common species continue to benefit from healthy populations, a new piece of legislation has been introduced to Congress.  America’s Wildlife Heritage Act is nothing less than a Species Act designed to monitor species, “maintain sustainable populations of native species and desired non-native species, and reintroduce extirpated species when a species population is no longer present.”

According to the America’s Wildlife Heritage Act:

Fish and wildlife are fundamental parts of America’s history and character, and fish and wildlife conservation is a core value shared by all Americans. All future generations deserve the opportunity to benefit from and enjoy a diverse array of fish and wildlife species.

The American landscape is rapidly changing, particularly in the Western United States where the majority of the Federal public lands are found, increasing the importance of sustaining fish and wildlife and their habitats on our public lands.

Federal public lands are critical to the future of fish, plant, and wildlife species in America. Federal public lands help to protect endangered and threatened species from going extinct and help prevent species from becoming endangered in the first place. These lands complement the conservation of fish, plants, and wildlife on private lands by providing comparatively intact tracts of land that serve as refuges from human development and other pressures. Federal public lands also help keep common species common, including species valued for hunting and fishing.

Please contact your congressional representatives (http://house.gov) and encourage them to sign on as co-sponsors of this important bill.

For additional information visit The Wildereness Society: http://wilderness.org/content/wonder-it-all

Every now and then I allude to my first educational go-around and the mental battle that played out during those years.  There was no question it was all about science, but the particular study that I would see through to completion was by no means set in stone at the time.  And if you are familiar with the “About” section of JournOwl, then you know I ultimately sacrificed passion for green; you know the kind that sparks greed.  But before you judge me too harshly definitely read the brief description of how I have begun to turn things around in the last couple of years.

Getting back to the story, my initial scholarly meanderings included a schedule that was Anthropologically-biased.  I loved and to this day am still infatuated with Anthropology, perhaps just shy of my ardor for wildlife biology and conservation.  And yes I do eventually plan to take those last couple of units to sew up a Minor in Anthropology.

The year was 1996 (I believe) and the class was absolutely perfect.  There were no lectures to speak of, no formal class meetings, a few required professor-student interactions, a lengthy term paper, and a whole lot of chimpanzee observations.  At 3 intervals a week for the entire semester, I positioned myself on a wooden bench observing the chimpanzees at the Sacramento Zoo. Each 3 hour visit was an amazing adventure as I diligently noted behaviors, described personality traits, and simply watched chimpanzees interact with themselves, their captive environment, and human visitors.  It was like stepping into the shoes of famed anthropologist/primatologist Dr. Jane Goodall; minus the jungles and rigors of Gombe.  But, I felt a connection to the woman I had come to admire.

The year was 2009 and the Wildlife Conservation Expo was absolutely perfect.  However, this time there was most definitely a lecture to speak of…and with a standing ovation Dr. Goodall set the stage with her ever famous chimp call greeting.  It was not about upcoming projects, nor was it about chimpanzees.  It was a platform to deliver a message of hope to an audience that was not only captivated by her presence but dedicated to wildlife protection.  And as if drawing a sword from its sheath, she pulled a California Condor feather from a cardboard tube and presented it to us all as a symbol of how a species can be rehabilitated from the brink of extinction.  She presented conservationists with a symbol of hope.

“It’s up to us to give them a second chance.”

Dr. Jane Goodall

She couldn’t be more right!

The auditorium’s crowd eventually dispersed, I had the honor of a brief conversation with Dr. Goodall herself, obtained a few autographed books, and retrieved a photo that I will cherish forever.