Organization helps owls affected by construction

Article Date: 2006-12-09   Source: http://www.svherald.com   Comments: 0

By Gentry Braswell

Palominas, Arizona, U.S.A. - Burrowing owls live in holes in the ground, but they don't dig their own.

Because of the ongoing extrication of burrowing mammals such as prairie dogs and the urbanization of grasslands and modern agricultural technology, burrowing owls are at risk because their natural homes are disappearing. Since 2002, The Wild At Heart organization has dug about 2,000 burrows for the owls in Arizona, said Greg Clark, the organization's burrowing owl habitat coordinator.

Clark is in Palominas this weekend on Gordon Lewis' land. With the help of Southwest Gas, he is digging 96 burrows for the birds.

Lewis said he likes the idea of helping the owls, and so does his wife.

Burrowing owls grow to about 9 inches tall and have around a 20-inch wing span. They eat whatever they can, Clark said.

"They'll even have a go at bunnies," he said.

In May, Wild At Heart dug owl burrows in Elgin.

Such locally based, non-confrontational environmental community outreach works better than does institutional conservation club efforts because people don't feel pressured by such grass-roots efforts, Clark said.

"It's really directly linked to the houses, and where people want to live. That's where burrowing owls want to live, too," he said.

Regarding the project set up earlier this year, the people who live nearby keep Wild At Heart informed about the owls' progress in Elgin. As of early fall, the owls were still there.

Once the owls are set up in their man-made burrows, "it's almost a slam dunk that your going to see eggs," Clark said.

This Palominas location appears to be far enough away from the nearby San Pedro River, a biome full of creatures that would like to eat burrowing owls, Clark said. If the predators were to become too active at the Palominas location, the owls would abandon their new homes.

Clark said he gets the birds primarily from areas of new housing development in Maricopa County, and those developers cooperate with this environmental organization in keeping an eye out for burrowing owls. He said about 1,000 acres of habitat are eliminated monthly in Maricopa County.

This year, Wild At Heart has been collecting these owls at about twice the rate as usual, and Clark predicts having about 250 burrowing owls to install at various new homes throughout the state by springtime.

The Lewises' land is a windfall for the project. "We rarely get sites that are monolithic grassland sites like this site," Clark said.

Land on and around agricultural property is the best for digging these burrows because of all the food for burrowing owls in farm-related locations.

In addition to welcoming Cochise County locations, Wild At Heart has its sights on making more owl burrows in the Kingman and Golden Valley area, Peoria, and some Arizona Game and Fish Department sanctioned locations. The organization also is working with the Bureau of Land Management for more sites.

"That is the most difficult thing for us to do in this project - finding large pieces of property or small pieces of property next to agricultural land," Clark said.

Close to 50 burrows were dug Friday at the Palominas location.

Male burrowing owls remain in their burrows in the winter, and the female owls fly south. While remaining at home they protect the food sources, and guard their burrows. "They're a very, very hearty species. Other raptors can visit, but they can't stay," Clark said.

In this area, the animal long gone which originally provided most of the owls burrows were black-tail prairie dogs. They were extricated in 1926, Clark said.

People are always killing such burrow-digging mammals as prairie dogs in large numbers, and "that's the reason why they (the owls) are in an ecological trap," Clark said. "It's the shooting of prairie dogs - that's why they're in trouble."

Pocket gophers are the main mammals still around to make natural burrows for these owls.

Bob Brunt of the Southeastern Arizona Contractors' Association board of directors said his group got the good word about cooperating with Wild At Heart from its mother organization in Tucson, the Southern Arizona Home Builders' Association.

Related Articles:
2007-11-19 - Palominas residents provide new homes for burrowing owls by Shar Porier - Palominas, Arizona, U.S.A.

< Previous News article   |   Next News Article >

Comments

Comment on the above News article.