Despite the California Fish and Game Commission declining last
week to name the western burrowing owl as an official threatened or
endangered species, City of Morgan Hill policies on leaving the
bird undisturbed will remain unchanged..
Despite the California Fish and Game Commission declining last week to name the western burrowing owl as an official threatened or endangered species, City of Morgan Hill policies on leaving the bird undisturbed will remain unchanged..
The Center for Biological Diversity, Santa Clara County Audubon Society and Defenders of Wildlife filed a petition for status change in April 2003 because the bird’s (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) numbers have been diminishing over the past two decades.
Morgan Hill was sued in March by the SCVAS for failing to protect its local burrowing owl population but has since passed protection measures acceptable to the SCVAS and to landowners.
City Manager Ed Tewes said the commission’s action won’t make a difference to newly established Morgan Hill policy.
“It doesn’t change anything,” Tewes said.
City Attorney Helene Leichter explained where the policy came from.
“When we did the (environmental) review for the Redevelopment Agency, we identified an impact on burrowing owls,” Leichter said. “The fact that they haven’t been made an endangered species doesn’t affect that.”
Lichter said the City Council likes the plan and considers it a “win-win” situation, not likely to change.
Kim Delfino of Defenders of Wildlife, said the environmental group are looking at all options including resubmitting the petition. Though there is no appeal process available, a lawsuit is possible.
“Litigation is the most likely, but not at all certain at this point,” Delfino said.
The owls are disappearing in half their natural range and have largely disappeared from 22 percent of their California habitat. “The Commission’s decision not to accept the burrowing owl petition was outrageous, and lacked any credible biological or legal basis,” said Jeff Miller, spokesman for the Center for Biological Diversity.
“Despite overwhelming evidence the species is now eliminated or in decline throughout more than two-thirds of its range in California, the Department bowed to political pressure from the building industry and agricultural interests.”
“The Commission dodged the major issue, and that is what constitutes a significant portion of the owl’s range in California,” said Craig Breon, executive director of the SCVAS.
“The decision implies that losing the species from all coastal areas, the greater Bay Area, and southwestern California is not significant. Do we have to get down to just a handful of owls remaining outside of the San Joaquin and Imperial Valleys to get the species listed?”
Commissioners explained the 4-0 vote by pointing out that, while the owl is disappearing from coastal California, it remains a frequent inhabitant of central California and, as such, is not endangered.
While they were once common on the valley floor, approximately 100 breeding pairs remain today in the South Bay, Breon said. Five nesting pairs of the owls were counted in Morgan Hill in a 1997 survey, he said, but none was found last year. The most recent count showed just one, although Breon said more possibly could be in the area.
Burrowing owls favor open, dry and sparsely vegetated land with available burrows from creatures such as ground squirrels and forages on rodents and insects. It is a favorite of bird lovers because it comes out in the day and is not totally frazzled by noise or human activity, often allowing observers to approach within 20 yards.
The owls are threatened primarily by habitat loss to urban development and eradication of ground squirrels and other burrowing rodents.
Surveys conducted throughout most of California during the early 1990s documented a nearly 60 percent loss in the number of breeding owl colonies known from the 1980s, and a decline in overall population numbers by 8 percent per year.
It was thought that an estimated 9,450 breeding pairs of owls remained statewide at that time. More than 71 percent of California’s breeding owls currently live in the margins of agricultural land in the Imperial Valley.
Other factors contributing to the decline of owls statewide include destruction of burrows through disking and grading, impacts of pesticides, habitat fragmentation, and other human-caused mortality from vehicle strikes, electrified fences, collisions with wind turbines, shooting, and vandalism of nesting sites.
Morgan Hill’s owl plan forbids any disking or plowing on land that might house the owls.
www.biologicaldiversity.org/species/b-owl/index.html
