Condors To Be Released at Vermilion Cliffs [ Public invited to release of California Condors]

[Waterbaby]

https://www.lakepowelllife.com/condors-to-be-released-at-vermilion-cliffs/

Condors To Be Released at Vermilion Cliffs

September 01
09:18 2017
by KXAZ News


Public invited to release of California Condors on Saturday,

Sept. 30, at Vermilion Cliffs National Monument

VERMILION CLIFFS, Ariz. – California Condors will be released to the wild in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 30. The public is welcome to observe the release from a viewing area where spotting scopes will be set up and project personnel will be available to answer questions.

The release coincides with National Public Lands Day, the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance America’s public lands. National Public Lands Day involves the U.S. Bureau of Land Management and other federal agencies, along with state and local governments and private groups.

• Driving directions: Take Highway 89A from Kanab or Page to the Vermilion Cliffs (from Flagstaff take Highway 89 to Highway 89A). Turn north onto BLM Road 1065 (a dirt road next to the small house just east of the Kaibab Plateau) and continue almost 3 miles.
• Bring: Spotting scope or binoculars, sunscreen, water, snack, chair and layered clothing
• Details: Informational kiosk, shade structure, and restroom at the site.
• Map: https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/documents/files/2010 VCNM California Condor Release Map.pdf

This will be the 21st annual public release of condors in Arizona since the condor recovery program began in 1996. Condors are hatched and reared in captivity at The Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Boise, Idaho, and transported to Arizona for release to the wild. Condors also come to the release site from the Oregon Zoo, Los Angeles Zoo, and San Diego Zoo Safari Park.

As of June 30, there were 74 condors in the wild in the rugged canyon country of northern Arizona and southern Utah. The world’s total population of endangered California Condors numbers over 450 individuals, with more than half flying in the wilds of Arizona, Utah, California, and Mexico. The historical California Condor population declined to just 22 individuals in the 1980s when the program was initiated to save the species from extinction.

The Arizona-Utah recovery effort is a cooperative program by federal, state, and private partners, including The Peregrine Fund, Arizona Game and Fish Department, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management’s Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Grand Canyon and Zion national parks, Utah Division of Wildlife Resources, and Kaibab and Dixie national forests among many other supporting groups and individuals.

For more information about California Condors in Arizona:

 

[Gem Morris]

Some boys from my church group were the ones who spotted one of the California Condors at Flaming Gorge, believe it or not, it made the round trip from the Grand Canyon. It was in the news about 15 years ago. Unfortunately, I was not on that trip.

From an article about that event (Loren, mentioned in the article, is a friend that lives near me):

"Apparently, one of the Arizona birds, Condor 19, took a two-week trip north in August of 1998, following the Green River. In the Peregrine Fund’s archives of field notes, researcher Shawn Farry reports being contacted by Loren Casterline, an adult who was with Varsity Scout Troop 1834 at Kingfisher Island in Flaming Gorge Reservoir Aug. 6. The site is in Utah, five miles south of the Wyoming line.

While the scouts swam, the condor left a perch 100 meters away and landed within several meters of Mr. Casterline (condors are known to be curious about humans), but then his movement caused her to take off over the lake. A Fish and Wildlife Service news release mentions “Flaming Gorge, Wyoming,” so perhaps there was another observation.

Condor 19 returned to the Arizona release site seven days later, making a total round trip of at least 600 miles."

 

[Lake Bum]

They hand feed those birds on almost a daily basis. There are government employees who sit there ALL DAY, everyday and observe them. They are on House Rock Ranch road, I witnessed it personally a couple years ago on a Bighorn Sheep hunt. We stopped and talked to them, and they weren't exactly the friendly type towards hunters

After a few days, we nicknamed them all "Club Condor". They just sat there........sucking up government dollars. They also feed them. And they wonder why they can't self sustain their own population. They are totally dependent on the food source. Those birds are sure beautiful in flight though....

 

[birdsnest]

I'm torn between wanting the birds to survive and wanting the government to spend my money wisely. What is the value of condors not being extinct? I know there is extreme manpower issues involved in the battle to keep the birds alive. I often see the condor people sitting on the side of the road trying to convince hunters not to use lead bullets and I also know they present carcasses of deer to the condors that are certified lead free. All this must cost a fortune. But do we have an obligation to do our best. I don't know. Thew are beautiful in flight.

 

[Lake Bum]

It is actually a requirement to use copper bullets on the Kaibab forest, and the entire AZ Strip. I have seen documentaries of how fast the Condors get lead poisoning after consuming a kill. There is actually a clinic setup, just for their surgeries. I'm sure that isn't cheap either...

 

[Gem Morris]

So I'm sure the likelihood of me having eaten lead in my lifetime is pretty high given the number of pheasants I have eaten that were killed by lead shot. I know for a fact that I've chewed lots of lead BBs for the same reason.

This lead doesn't affect humans the same way? Or does that explain my mental derangement?

In any event, it hasn't killed me

 

[birdsnest]

Yet.

 

[birdsnest]

I,m a retired plumber who soldered tons of lead and I am not dead either. Yet

 

[Goblin]

You have to remember that the issue is NEVER the issue. Lead is just the current cause célèbre.
Points to remember:

1. The Ca. Condors have grown too large and vulnerable to just about everything. Their time has probably passed. It will happen to all sooner or later. {I don't mean to inspire a money hemorrhaging, bucket list bender in Lost Wages, NV. so don't blame it on me!}
2. In addition to the vast millions already spent on this recovery effort please keep in mind that each California Condor receives the benefit of over $11,000. a year every year. It is expected that this cost will, of course increase and remain in perpetuity. That's forever folks!
3. Environmentalists also blame the condor's failing on:

   Significant past damage to the condor population has also been attributed to poaching, lead poisoning, DDT poisoning, electric power lines, egg collecting, and habitat destruction. During the California Gold Rush, some condors were even kept as pets {Oh, the humanity!!!}. The leading cause of mortality in nestling condors is the ingestion of trash that is fed to them by their parents. {You filthy human pigs!!}

   Please note the bird chomping eco-crucifixes (wind turbines), and the bird roasting huge solar toaster oven complexes ARE NOT mentioned. More importantly note there's never a mention of the smaller, hardier, condor look-alike Turkey Vulture which is thriving across the entire planet despite all of Man's sins.
4. More realistic causes of the decline is the Ca. Condor's vulnerability from a wide variety of causes: Its huge size. Its low clutch size (one young per nest), combined with a late age of sexual maturity, make the bird vulnerable to artificial population decline. Unanticipated deaths among recent condor populations occurred due to contact with golden eagles.
5. Now for the EVILS OF LEAD BULLETS: The evil part is not the "lead" part. The evil is the "bullet" part. This is a convenient way to advance gun control legislation surreptitiously all the while pointing to the cute dolphins threatened condors. Lead ammo was the cheapest while the rest was NOT. Banning lead bullets greatly increases the cost of discharging a firearm thereby vastly reducing the numbers of discharging firearms (market forces they say), oh, and it helps the cute dolphins threatened condors.

Final thoughts are to paraphrase Frederick Douglass:

"What shall we do with the California Condor?"

"What shall we do with the California Condor?" I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with them! Your doing with them has already played the mischief with them. Do nothing with them! If the apples will not remain on the tree of their own strength, if they are wormeaten at the core, if they are early ripe and disposed to fall, let them fall! I am not for tying or fastening them on the tree in any way, except by nature's plan, and if they will not stay there, let them fall. And if the California Condor cannot stand on his own legs, let him fall also. All I ask is, give him a chance to stand on his own legs! Let him alone!"

FWIW,
Goblin
ps. In the interest of time, some information was obtained from Wikipedia for this post,, I know, I know, I feel low...but it was quick.