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.
