A Word about Owls

Saturday's AZ Republic had a couple of articles about burrowing owls; I'm sure the timing had something to do with the release of the movie, "Hoot," which has a storyline involving the owls. The article was a tad more realistic than the movie, I think. Here is the article in full:

Arizona burrowing owls and developers have one thing in common.

They both like flat, treeless plains. Predictably, conflicts arise as each lays claim to its property.

On the developers' side is market demand for housing and commercial development.

On the birds' is the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which provides fines up to $10,000 and up to six months in jail for anyone who kills the owls.

Such immutable forces can add up to high drama, as demonstrated in the recent Hollywood movie Hoot, where a kid faces off against greedy developers to save the owl.

However, in Arizona, where the pace of development and owl population both outstrip Florida's, the story lacks a plotline.

The owl, which lives in other animals' burrows, is losing ground in Arizona but has found help among builders and developers in the form of labor and cash.

"Builders have been amazingly good, but we try to make it painless for them," said Sam Fox, who with her husband, Bob, operates Wild at Heart, a Cave Creek sanctuary for birds of prey that is the main rescuer of burrowing owls in the state, according the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Department, which issues the $100 permit required to trap the birds.

The Foxes remove owls from construction areas and introduce them to artificial habitats. Land owners pay Bob a fee to remove the birds and $300 per bird to temporarily shelter them in the sanctuary until artificial burrows are built in a different area.

The fees can add up. According to a Gilbert town official, the 2004 cost of removing owls from a water reclamation plant operated by Gilbert, Mesa and Queen Creek neared $100,000.

Mesa developer Richard Dobkin, who recently contacted Wild at Heart to clear owls from a 42-acre plot his company, NY Holdings LLC, owns near Queen Creek, expects to pay $50,000 to $75,000.

"I don't want to kill the owls, and it's expensive to remove them. We weren't prepared for it, but it's the cost of doing business and it will be passed on to the buyers," Dobkin said. The property, bought for $5.8 million, is being sold in four parcels, priced at $10 million each.

The Home Builders Association of Central Arizona has been educating its members, who frequently provide backhoes and workers to dig owl burrows for Wild at Heart, according to the Foxes.

"We had inquiries from members about the owls and we were struggling with what to do," said association Director Connie Wilhelm, who heard about Wild at Heart and started referring builders to the sanctuary.

"It seemed to be a natural partnership. We're interested in protecting the owls rather than putting them on the endangered species list," Wilhelm said.

By law, habitat for endangered species cannot be disturbed. Owl protections bring a construction delay while the birds are trapped and relocated.

Some developers have been reluctant to arrange for the rescue, said Kamile McKeever, Fish and Wildlife's permits administrator for Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma.

"But if we shut them down they could lose thousands of dollars a day. In the long run, it's cheaper than being shut down," said McKeever, who said most of the burrowing-owl removals in the region are done in Arizona.

Megan Mosby, director of Liberty Wildlife, a Scottsdale sanctuary for birds and other wild animals, said the next step to ensuring the owls' survival is long-term monitoring after relocation.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department is 18 months into such a study and, pending budget approval, it says research could run as long as eight years.

I included the entire article because I think it is a good representation of the facts. In fact, we just had our first experience with burrowing owls. When the earth moving crew showed up at Lakeview Trails North to prepare for their work, they saw some burrowing owls. Our construction manager then got in contact with Bob Fox, described in the article above, and contracted with him to have the owls removed, re-acclimated, and relocated, at a cost of several thousand dollars. Our understanding is that this is the way most developers handle this situation.

I share this with you because I want you to have an alternative viewpoint, just in case you go see the movie "Hoot." I haven't seen it, and don't intend to, but I've seen the trailers, and read the reviews. The basic gist of the movie is that greedy developers are going to build a pancake house in spite of the burrowing owls that live there; that all adults, including parents and authority figures, are complete idiots and totally clueless; and that kids might need to take matters into their own hands, and that includes lying, vandalism and dangerous (and felonious) activities. The end justifies the means. And apparently the greedy developers have no Wild at Heart options, no Bob Fox, and no way to remove the owls from harm. Even if I weren't married to a greedy developer, I would be offended by the movie because of the values it promotes and its denigration of adults.

Our own film critic, with whom I often disagree, sees it the same way I do. Here is what Bill Muller, the AZ Republic's critic said:

Bad acting isn't the film's No. 1 transgression, however. The movie treats us as if we're all 3 years old, and it belies its supposedly positive message by filling the story with dysfunctional families and a teenager left alone to forage in the wilderness.

What's the real lesson here? If things don't go your way, resort to vandalism, deception and assault? A great example for the nation's youth.

Oh, wait. It's for a good cause, so that makes all the difference.

The environmental message in Hoot is presented like nails on a chalkboard, a sound that's preferable to much of the sugary dialogue.

Despite the film's best efforts to bemoan the inexorable march of progress, by the end of this endurance test, you won't give a hoot.

I feel better now.