Letter: Burrowing owl needs local help

Friday, Oct. 29, 2004 | 9:05 a.m.

The burrowing owl is a fascinating and delightful creature that isn't being given a fair chance in Las Vegas. A pair will occupy the same burrow year after year, raising six to 10 young each season and consuming great quantities of insects and scorpions.

The problem comes as we develop the land that has been their habitat. Those that survive the construction process find fewer and fewer suitable places to live.

It doesn't have to be that way. There are many places -- golf courses, parks, school properties, and private lands not slated for development -- where the owls could prosper if only they had a burrow to move into. They cannot dig their own burrow, but they readily take over holes dug by animals such as prairie dogs and badgers.

In the Phoenix area, a group called Wild at Heart has been constructing burrows for several years, and has seen many owls move into them. We need someone to do that in Las Vegas.

What we need is a service-oriented group, such as Boy Scouts or the Audubon Society or a Lion's Club, to step forward and take this on as a project. Burrowing owls live happily in proximity to people, and they provide an experience with nature for today's children and for generations to come. We can have them among us if some group will step forward and help. State and federal wildlife agencies are both willing to lend support, but it isn't within the scope of their duties to do this for us. It needs to come from a local group.

OWEN NELSON Editor's note: Owen Nelson is a longtime bird watcher and professor of environmental science who teaches at both of the local campuses of the University of Phoenix.