Burrowing Owl Conservation Project

Burrowing Owls in Your Backyard

By:

Tim Fullman

Tu Huynh

Venessa Laurel

Lisa Ng

Presented to: Carrie Devine, Dan Potter, and the Davis Honors Challenge

Date submitted: June 6, 2007

Even in a suburban setting like Davis, California, burrowing owls can be found almost everywhere, even in residential backyards and golf courses. Unfortunately, the livelihood of these owls is being threatened by urban and agricultural development. Working with the Susan Healy of the Sacramento Zoo, our team seeks to create a network linking concerned parties. We also want to educate and motivate the public about the needs of these owls and what can be done to help.

With regards to network building, we have been able to contact various local organizations, i.e., the Sacramento Zoo, the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society, the Raptor Center at UC Davis, the City of Davis, the Lindsey Wildlife Museum, and other student groups. These parties expressed concern for the burrowing owls and a strong desire to be part of the solution. During our final presentation on June 2, we held an informal meeting for NOBOL (Network of Burrowing Owl Lovers) so that all interested parties could express their goals for burrowing owl conservation. Many described issues of urban development and its impact on burrowing owls. One of the biggest threats to burrowing owls seems to be the fact that urban developers and homeowners do not realize that burrowing owls can live alongside urban development. Many members threw out different solutions. For example, a member suggested creating a curriculum to target adults and inform them that owls can live in residential backyards. He also suggested that all network members lobby the state government for an increased level of protection for burrowing owls. Another member suggested having more regular meetings of network members to discuss what’s been going on with regards to burrowing owls. The representative from the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society mentioned the annual Burrowing Owl Consortium and how the network members could either meet there or send a representative, who would come back to the network and describe what happened at the consortium. With regards to the sustainability of the network, the Sacramento Zoo mentioned that a listserve would be the best method to contact people, as it would be easy to add and take off members, as well as keep everyone updated. At the end of this meeting, we collected the names, email addresses, and phone numbers of members who would very much like to be in contact with one another regarding burrowing owls.

As this project is ongoing, we have not yet seen the full impact of our network and education. We envision that in the future, the network members will be in close contact with one another and be able pool their resources together to promote conservation and education on burrowing owls. We even hope to connect them to UC Davis student groups that can offer the extra people power for further research. It is up to them to maintain these relationships and remember that they can truly help the burrowing owl by working together

The education portion of our or project is designed to target younger children. The curriculum we have developed aims at teaching younger children about burrowing owls, why it is important to help them, and what they can do to help. The activities aim to promote discussion about serious issues, such as declining biodiversity, in a light-hearted way. We have developed educational games such as connect-the-dots, word searches, and other interactive projects to teach children to appreciate nature and to look for it in unexpected locations. For example, the connect-the-dots emphasized how burrowing owls have to build their habitats around developments such as a new road in order to survive. We have tested these materials at the Earth Fest at the Sacramento Zoo on April 7, 2007 and got a great deal of positive feedback. We found that some materials worked extremely well, i.e., got the children asking questions about burrowing owls and could possibly be used in a classroom setting. We also learned that other activities, e.g., paint an egg to look like a burrowing owl, would work well in a faire, but not so well in a classroom.

The impact of this project has not only reached the network members and children; our group had also grown a lot, as well. What we have learned from this experience is that teamwork isn’t meant to lessen the workload for someone by merely splitting up work that needs to be done. Teamwork is about taking advantage of everyone’s diverse background to add to the final product. When put together, everyone’s ideas have a synergistic effect on one another. Thus, we learned that it is important in a group to be active listeners, taking in what the other is saying, yet at the same time offering positive support of opposition. While dealing with conflicting personalities and schedules can be time consuming, the result makes it well worth the effort.