Antioch Burrowing Owls

Friends Underground

heidi08 Burrowing Owls, City Reports January 15, 2010

Beaver friend and science writer Joe Eaton has a powerful article in the Berkeley Daily Planet. In it he highlights the failure of Fish & Game to take regional scarcities into account in deciding that the Burrowing Owl wasn’t “endangered”. Apparently if we have a pile of them on crop lands in Fresno that means that species is doing fine. Kind of like taking the bald eagles off the federal list because there are so many in Alaska.

Some context first: As recently as the 1920s, this small semi-diurnal ground-dwelling owl was described as a “fairly common resident in the drier, unsettled parts of the [bay] region; most numerous in parts of Alameda, Contra Costa and Santa Clara counties.” Whatever their status may have been in the other Bay Area counties, they’re mostly gone. Surveys in 1992-93 found no breeding burrowing owls in Napa, Marin, and San Francisco counties, and only a few in San Mateo and Sonoma. The Santa Clara County population is declining and restricted to a few breeding locations. That leaves Alameda, Contra Costa, and Solano as the remnant breeding range.

Got that? “Help me Contra Costa County! You’re my only Hope!” Time is running out for the owls. The Mayor of Antioch is sticking his heels in and taking care of the developer. I wrote him an imploring letter asking him to do the right thing and just happening to mention that Antioch has been in the news cycle for exactly two reasons this year, and wouldn’t he like to forget the other one by doing the noble thing this time? Funny what gets a mayor’s attention. He wrote back within seconds saying that Jaycee Drugard had been held on unincorporated land so technically it wasn’t an Antioch story. Gosh, I guess he told me.

Although their presence would appear to require a fresh environmental analysis, Kiper is now moving to clear the site by blocking the owls’ burrows with one-way doors. Once the birds are gone, the burrows will be collapsed and backfilled and the burrow architects—the ground squirrels—will be gassed. There’s a standard protocol for passively relocating burrowing owls from development sites, which involves providing alternate habitat nearby. Kiper is not following the protocol. This is eviction pure and simple, not relocation. One of the developer’s hired guns told the Contra Costa Times the owls “will all find happy homes.” That’s nonsense. Burrowing owls are remarkably site-tenacious. The displaced birds will probably hang around until they’re picked off by predators.

Cheryl’s lovely photo adorns the article. If you want to support the owls in their increasingly less likely quest for salvation, drop a note or a phone call in the Mayor’s and council’s direction.

Mayor James D. Davis (925) 757-2020

Mayor Pro Tem Mary Helen Rocha (925)207-7220

Councilmember Brian Kalinowski (925) 584-5430

Councilmember Reginald L. Moore (925)706-7040

Councilmember Martha Parsons (925)890-2665

Memories…

heidi08 Burrowing Owls January 4, 2010

Ahhh the familiar snap of shutters, and the honking of horns in support. This I remember from the beaver days. Yesterday’s owling was a good success, with about 40 supporters, great neighborhood interest, and a channel 5 news camera. Lisa Owens Viani brought lovely owl masks, and I came up with the idea of printing the eyes on stickers and putting them on everyone’s backs. There were children who came by who wanted to sign a petition and parents who had walked the neighborhood and always wondered about those little owls.

Two things I didn’t expect: to be greeted by strangers like animal-advocate rockstars for saving the Martinez Beavers, and to see actually little owls popping out of their burrows. They were every bit as adorable as you might have anticipated. I can’t think of anything that is more charismatically worth saving. (Shhh don’t tell the beavers.)

We were on channel 5 and channel 2, and there is a great article in the Contra Costa Times. All in all, it was an afternoon well spent and a great way to launch into 2010.

Give A Hoot: Not the Boot!

heidi08 Burrowing Owls, Creative Solutions January 3, 2010

Canada Valley Road & McFarlan Ranch Drive in Antioch, CA
2pm to 3pm
January 3, 2010 (Sunday)

protest_map

When we teach our children how to care for urban wildlife, they grow up to value and protect wild places all over: but also more able to tame their own ‘wildness’ and live peacefully with others. Come join us, remember the support our beavers had from antioch, and beyond.

WOL update

heidi08 Burrowing Owls, Creative Solutions December 30, 2009

Remember the owl in Winnie the Pooh? He was the only one in hundred acre wood that could spell his name. W-O-L. Beaver friend Scott Artis has been working hard to save the burrowing owls in Antioch. He was able to generate some modest media attention. Hopefully this is just the beginning.For information about Sunday’s protest, check here.

To evict the owls before nesting season starts in February, environmental consultants Monk & Associates are installing one-way doors on the owls’ burrows that will let them out, but prevent them from returning. Once the owls are out, the biologists will destroy the burrows and fumigate for ground squirrels.”We do it in a systematic manner until all the burrows are collapsed and the owls are moved out,” said Geoff Monk, a certified wildlife biologist who has been working with nesting birds of prey for 30 years.

Thirty years disturbing nesting birds of prey? Do they give a gold watch for that? The article yawns through several justifications for their eviction, without any effort to demonstrate that this will be harmless or reference to research suggesting the owls effortlessly relocate. It allows multiple Monkisms, and one comment by Scott, then clunks to a big Disney ending with the quote,

“We wouldn’t want to hurt them in any way, and I am not concerned about evicting them at all,” Monk said. “They will all find happy homes.“

Ahhh. Happy Homes! Maybe that could be the name of your new subdivision. Now, we mustn’t blame the staggeringly successful Walnut Creek-based Monk & Associates. They are just doing their job. (“Biostitutes: The other oldest profession,” someone said to me yesterday). We ask for scientists to teach us how to successfully interfere, and fortunately some are willing to do the job. I heard an exciting rumor about their efforts in a previous intervention that I am not permitted to share, but suffice it to say the ensuing feeling that washed over me was not reassurance.

In case you want a comparison to some better reporting, check out the parallel article from just a month ago in the related paper the Mercury News. It starts out with the necessary “Why should I care” hook that every busy reader needs, and a serious challenge to the idea that the owls can just “move on”. There’s also a recognition that people need wild places to survive, and a clear commitment by the city to provide a thoughtful civic response to that need.

Kleinhaus said the concept of mitigation doesn’t work for owls: the city isn’t physically moving those specific owls to a new home. They’re simply assuming that they will find somewhere else to live, and more owls will reproduce in Alameda to make up for them. Burrowing owls tend to show “strong fidelity” to their nest sites, remaining in the same area for years, according to California Department of Fish and Game documents. As they disappear from Santa Clara County, Kleinhaus said, they’re difficult to bring back.

“They’ve been mitigated to death,” she said.

Now I realize that Antioch isn’t Mountain View. There’s a huge difference in median income for a start. Still, how much do you want to bet that the people of both zip codes want thoughtful development that incorporates and respects open spaces so that homes and businesses are enriched by their surroundings? How much would it cost to set aside a little wild space for a family of owls? What would be lost and what would be gained?

Go ahead and think about the answer. I can wait.

Happy Solstice to You Too

heidi08 Friends of Martinez Beavers, New Species December 22, 2009

Scott Artis writes that the owl kick-out order was apparently granted just in time. Before the ink was dry on the CDFG signature allowing the eviction of the burrowing owls and the fumigation of the ground squirrels, Kiper went to work.

In any event, I stumbled upon the first round of evictions by Kiper Homes’ consulting firm way sooner than expected. As I wandered through the unlocked chain link fence I found a team of 3 actively enlarging the burrows of the owls my wife and I have come to obsess over in terms of their protection. I continued down the middle of the street looking over burrows marked with flags of orange and red, plexi-glass fitted one-way doors blocking burrows that sheltered a family during breeding season, and adjacent burrows that provided extra cover were now overflowing with soil and rocks. The eviction of the first section was just about complete and the process continued uninterrupted in the background as I spoke with the principle biologist. I couldn’t help but glance over his shoulder as the shovels filled in burrows that months earlier I had cleared of garbage and debris.

Scott and his wife were there, sadly recording the damage as burrows were widened and fitted with one-way doors, and other adjacent areas were filled with soil and rocks. Scott had a talk with the biologist hired gun on site, who admitted that the squirrels were enormously important to the habitat and thought they deserved protection. In this discussion Scott also learned that there is no data on how evicted owls recover, or whether they recover at all.

The eviction process simply functions by ASSUMPTION that displaced owls do fine and is apparently at the behest of the California Department of Fish & Game who no longer requires banding of the evicted. So again I am left with the feeling that the owls are a Species of Not So Special Concern.

Burrowing Owl Eviction Begins.

Obviously Kiper (rhymes with viper) wanted this done in time for the holidays. Who can celebrate with their family while bands of hoodlum owls are loose in the neighborhood? When I look at Scott’s smart, bitter video I know exactly how he feels. There but for the grace of 200 people…

Have I told you all lately how much I love you?