California Condor May Fly Over the Northcoast Again

Photo by US Fish & Wildlife service via Wikicommons

The high-flying California Condor, believed by members of the local Yurok Tribe to carry their prayers to the heavens, may once again soar overhead here on the Tribe’s ancestral lands, thanks to a multi-agency effort to expand the range of this critically endangered bird.

In a time when environmental concerns are being pushed aside and hopelessness grows among those who follow the numbers and observe the trends, this beacon of life’s tenacity is a welcome symbol of survival.

The Yurok Tribe, along with Redwood National Park and the US Fish and Wildlife Service have been working on a plan to reintroduce the condor on the Tribe’s traditional lands since 2003. The project is going through the final planning stages with an estimated time of first release being Fall of 2019.

Yurok tribal member and wildlife biologist Tiana Williams-Claussen has been involved since the project’s inception. In 2003 a Yurok panel designated to help prioritize actions to be taken toward restoring Yurok ancestral territories decided that the California Condor was the most important terrestrial species to restore to Yurok territory. Understanding that traditional practices mixed with modern scientific input would be the best method to advance the Tribe’s wishes, the Tribe began working toward a plan to gather cultural knowledge of the condor’s ancestral role while conducting habitat assessments to ensure a safe homecoming for the bird.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service first gave funding to the Tribe in 2008 to begin habitat analyses. Because of logging and agricultural practices having altered the ecology of the bird’s onetime habitat since condors last flourished here, data needed to show that the great birds would have ample space and foraging opportunities in the changed landscape. Unlike other scavengers, such as our locally abundant turkey vultures who will eat smaller carrion, the condor is better suited to larger animals like deer, elk and marine mammals by virtue of its huge bill and strength. The smaller turkey vultures, abundant in our area, are less able to tear into the larger animals’ hides.

“The landscape characteristics that make Yurok ancestral territory such a good home have remained relatively constant,” says Williams-Claussen. Great foraging and flight corridors are still present, and Williams-Claussen notes that Redwood National Park’s Bald Hills area is an especially promising habitat for the condors.

Lead poisoning, which contributed to the demise of the condor throughout last century, may be less of a factor in Humboldt, where tested levels in surrogate species like turkey vultures are seemingly lower than in areas already supporting new condor populations. Also encouraging is the vast remoteness of local habitat, important for a bird that may fly over 150 miles one way in search of a meal.

The long bureaucratic road to approval, which will culminate in an approval process under the jurisdiction of the 1970 National Environmental Protection Act is moving towards the writing of an Environmental Assessment (EA) which is expected to include a recommendation by the tribe and agencies. At present, the thousands of comments submitted during the original scoping sessions are being compiled and sorted so that when the EA comes out early this summer it will include responses to major concerns.

The writing of the EA, a joint process of the co-leads of the project (US Fish and Wildlife Service, Redwood National Park and the Yurok Tribe) as well a specialized environmental contractor will also include a digest of all of the scientific analyses performed so far that support the project.

Photo by US Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikicommons

At present, two of the multiple alternatives proposed have stood out. The first would be for the full protection of the released birds as spelled out under the Endangered Species Act. This would make any disturbance of the condors, accidental or not, a federal violation. A second alternative would be to designate the project “10j” which would allow the managers to tailor what constitutes a violation to the concerns of the project’s many stakeholders, allowing more local input and control. The latter is seen as a relaxation of protection, allowing local stakeholders and land managers more freedom to manage the project as they wish as long as best practices are followed to protect the environment, including condors.

“The 10j designation would enable us to make sure the practices of our stakeholders are less infringed upon,” says Williams-Claussen. “We have spent a long time working with all of our partners to ensure safe and effective management that makes sense to all. The cool thing about this project is the coordination and partnership that has come about between all of the parties involved,” she continued. “At the Eureka scoping session there was a huge amount of positivity and excitement, including a lot of great suggestions.”

For Williams-Claussen and other local tribal members, the project goes deeper than merely restoring a species to a former habitat.

“There are clear parallels between restoring the condor and restoring the Yurok people themselves. We went through a really hard time after contact,” says Willams-Claussen. “It was illegal to be Indian. We were forced off our lands and a lot of our territory was destroyed. We weren’t allowed to practice our ceremonies openly or speak our language, but we are committed to restoring our culture. When we pray for our wildlife, our wildlife pray for us. One of our beliefs is that when you include the condor feather in a dance, his spirit is included with that dance as well. It’s all very integrated. We came very close to losing some significant parts of ourselves, including the White Deerskin Dance.”

According to Williams-Claussen, it was only through great commitment of tribal elders along with a huge coordination effort that the dance was restored and is now being performed every two years. Because the ceremony’s purpose is to renew and restore the earth, its comeback symbolizes the tribe’s recommitment to restoring itself as well as the many creatures with which the Yurok share their ancestral lands, including the hugely significant condor.

During a public scoping meeting in December 2016, Williams-Claussen recalled seeing a condor for the first time. “There’s really nothing like a condor, there’s no other way to say it. I remember the first time I saw one from afar and I realized I was seeing him from miles away. He was so huge, you can’t even describe it until you are right next to one.” Williams-Claussen was visiting Ventana Wildlife Society as part of an effort to help the facility rebuild after a fire. “I put my arms around one and it was like holding a bear.”

Condor feathers are used in Yurok regalia and Yurok tribal council member Joe James says the bird’s feathers are used in the tribe’s White Deerskin Dance and Jump Dance, both ceremonies performed to renew and maintain the earth’s vitality.

James says, “It’s part of the balance that makes us whole as Indian people, to bring this bird back. People talk about paying it forward, but this is paying it backwards, with respect for our ancestors who were able to see this bird at one time.”

Willams-Claussen describes the sound of the condor’s feathers when one flew by close to her. “I could hear the zzzzing of the air as it rushed through his feathers. I don’t know why, but that was so impactful to me.”

The magnificent scavenger once ranged widely over the west and thousands of years ago was present even in Florida and New York. Their range still covered most of the west, from Idaho, Utah, and Arizona to the Pacific Ocean at the time of the arrival of European Settlers.Yet numbers dropped dramatically over the course of much of the twentieth century, indicating a near certainty of extinction. A daring and unproven experiment began in the mid-1980’s when all of the remaining 22 free-flying condors were captured to be bred in captivity in the hopes of saving the species.

Newly hatched chick and parent condor. [Photo by US Fish and Wildlife Service via Wikicomons]

The birds reproduced well in captivity and in 1995 reintroductions began in Southern California with new release sites eventually established in Central California, Arizona, and Baja California.  The reintroduction program is considered a success, with over 400 condors now living, 270 of them in the wild.

A major milestone was reached in 2015 when more condors were hatched in the wild than died. Because it takes condors six years to reach breeding age and because pairs only produce one egg every other year, wild breeding success has been a delicate balance that continues to draw attention to ongoing threats to condor success.

That the local landscape can provide the space, habitat, and food necessary to support another population is a tremendous step for the species and for the Yurok who take very seriously their role in the preservation of the well-being of the planet. According to Williams-Claussen, the condors’ cleaning up carcasses from the landscape, turning death into life, acts as an agent of renewal and in a meaningful way symbolizes the cultural renewal of the Yurok people also demonstrated through removal of dams, revival of the language, reconnection of youth to tribal culture, and revitalization of nearly lost ceremonies.

As condors may once again carry the tribe’s prayers to the heavens, perhaps this one small corner of creation will carry a hopeful message of renewal and restoration abroad.

 

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23 Comments
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Mr. Bear
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Mr. Bear
6 years ago

One of the coolest things I’ve seen in a long time.

I hope it works out.

Fortunato
Guest
Fortunato
6 years ago

Condor lives way up high.soars down to eat dead stuff.up high are a few warm ponds in rock.where they bathe,daily.the ponds sometimes have little clams deposited by birds.clams eat algae that grows on mineral dust and air’s co2.and what washes off big birds.good thing to film to make people have empathy for these once hated and feared birds.vultures and crows once announced plague.

Laurie Jensen
Guest
Laurie Jensen
6 years ago

I am so thrilled this is happening in my life-time. The Condor is the biggest of the Raptor family I would like to share a video dated April 2016 from Cornell Birds/ Fish and Wildlife You got to watch the video its pretty interesting http://cams.allaboutbirds.org/channel/49/California_Condor/#_ga=2.203009425.1649226166.1494377383-1193016333.1486769487

Jayne Dough
Guest
Jayne Dough
6 years ago
Reply to  Laurie Jensen

Love this program! Thank you for the CAM info, amazing, love birding, would be amazing for people to see them in the wild, magnificent!

Maryellen
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Maryellen
6 years ago
Reply to  Laurie Jensen

Thanks,for the link..

visitor
Guest
visitor
6 years ago
Dr Brian Ormond
Guest
Dr Brian Ormond
6 years ago
Reply to  visitor

thanks for the address.
BIG Thank you for the work !

Jayne Dough
Guest
Jayne Dough
6 years ago
Reply to  visitor

Thank you for this site information…what a great program!

C. Armstrong
Guest
C. Armstrong
6 years ago

Very cool. This will be nice.

Guest8
Guest
Guest8
6 years ago

Do they taste good? Damn Now I want to try one. Jk. It would be really cool to see them in the wild.

Me_too
Guest
Me_too
6 years ago
Reply to  Guest8

You might be kidding but some moron will shoot them. Just look at the fine folks who shot the zebra.

browndwarf
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browndwarf
6 years ago

wow! I would love to see them

Kevin Nelson
Guest
Kevin Nelson
6 years ago

I absolutely love these birds and so happy to see them return to the wild where they belong. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

Crime stopper
Guest
Crime stopper
6 years ago

How many billions of dollars has been spent on the condor’s salvation? Condors were in Mexico-never Northern California until the market hunters slaughtered animals and left the carcasses. This “bread crumbs” trail pulled these condors way farther North than their home habitat. SCAVANGERS!!!!!! Not prestigious glorious birds-garbage eaters! Eventually the condors came into northern California. Did they thrive-probably not but withered away as “easy socialized endowment” food became scarce.
This entire waste of money is a touchy feely project by enviro wackos in Fish and Game and EPA.

Dan
Guest
Dan
6 years ago
Reply to  Crime stopper

You are so wrong its ridiculous. Condors occurred in Oregon and Washington. Condors stories are found in Yurok history. Fish and Game (Fish and WIldlife, duh) and the EPA have nothing to do with this project. And no, billions have not been spent.

humboldtstickman
Guest
humboldtstickman
6 years ago

That bird is so ugly most hill folk will shoot it with lead bullets if it gets near them,..Damn its ugly!

Thinking allowed
Guest
Thinking allowed
6 years ago

The truth is simple. A soaring bird of this size is magnificent to watch in the sky. Unfortunately, for the few who think it is a fine target, it is an easy shot.

And that sums up its prospects. Unless it is continuously supplied with man killed carcasses in protected locations, it has no chance of survival. With a perpetual supply of safe, human supplied food, it will slowly struggle along as a species, with stories of outrage over various shootings, poisonings and accidental deaths and injuries from interactions from modern things like wind turbines, cars and powerlines. This is not a bald eagle capable of thriving if just not poisoned or decimated. This is a huge bird with a highly specific food requirement that cannot be safely accessed. The lawsuits over its protection will be as widespread as its range.

Dan
Guest
Dan
6 years ago

BS. The Pacific Ocean provides marine mammal and fish carcasses. Our rivers provide salmon carcasses. You don’t have any idea what you are talking about.

Thinking allowed
Guest
Thinking allowed
6 years ago
Reply to  Dan

Dan, if your criticism was correct, they would never have been endangered in the first place. The man made factors that make them vulnerable actually have already pushed them to the brink of extinction except for man’s intervention.

There are carcasses around but, for these large birds to survive, they need to be able to feed safely. And that happens only where they can be protected from man.

Guest^
Guest
Guest^
6 years ago

Way cool. I hope to get a chance to see them in the wild. What a treat!

Brownclown
Guest
Brownclown
6 years ago

Resineckers are ready with rifles so I heard, release them somewhere safe in a gun-free zone

Curious
Guest
Curious
6 years ago

Are these birds also known for packing off with small animals?? More house pets could start to disappear. Correct me if I’m wrong.

Dan
Guest
Dan
6 years ago
Reply to  Curious

You are wrong. They eat carrion.