Press Release

 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

California Department of Fish and Game Evicts burrowing owls from their shelters

Antioch, CA - December 20, 2009 - CDFG gave Kiper Homes (BRL Group, LLC) the go ahead to allow Monk and Associates, Inc (Walnut Creek) biologists to install one way doors on burrowing owls’ burrows in the Canada Hill area of Antioch. Once the owls are out they cannot get back into the burrow which they need to evade predators and shelter from the weather.

“When the owls are excluded from their burrow, they stand on the ground out in the open trying to figure out why they can’t get back into their burrow and looking for a safe place to hide. Any predator can take them.”

“It’s quite an oxymoron that the program within Fish and Game that permits these owl evictions is called ‘Habitat Conservation Planning’. Since the Fish and Game Commission denied the petition to the list the western burrowing owl as threatened or endangered in 2003, Fish and Game hasn’t even developed a Conservation Plan for the burrowing owl.” Catherine Portman of the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society.

This Antioch property is bordered by Canada Valley Road and McFarlan Ranch Drive.

Contacts:

Scott Artis, Friends of East Bay Owls (http://friendsofeastbayowls.org)

Catherine Portman, Burrowing Owl Preservation Society (http://burrowingowlpreservation.org)

Monk and Associates, Inc 925-947-4867 x 201

Suzanne Gilmore, Environmental Scientists, CDFG, Habitat Conservation Planning Worked with Monk and Associates to develop and approve eviction plan 707-944-5536

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