Yuroks get $200,000 to continue condor work

[Donna]

Money prolongs effort by at least 1 more year

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has granted the Yurok Tribe $200,000 to aid efforts to reintroduce California condors to the North Coast, where the birds have been absent for more than 100 years.

Yurok Tribe officials have been studying whether they can bring back the giant, endangered scavenger for at least the past year, and the federal dollars will help expand this research.

“This means the project is going to keep going for at least another year,� said Chris West, a senior biologist with the Yurok Tribe. “We have a few different activities that we’ll be able to start up with this.�

The tribe initially received $200,000 from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2008 to fund the condor reintroduction project. That money was used to perform studies that analyzed how much lead and other contaminants might be in condor food sources, such as marine mammals and other carrion, and looked at what types of habitat would be available to the birds should they be be reintroduced.

With the additional $200,000 that was approved by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, West said these projects will be expanded, and include different studies, including one that will involve interviewing Yurok elders to find out what they have learned about condors when they used to live along the North Coast.

“There wasn’t a whole lot of scientific inquiry into these things when these birds were in the Pacific Northwest so this will allow us to do some ethnographic studies,� West said. “That’s extremely important. There’s a lot of elders out there that have a lot of great information.�

The $200,000 is part of $2 million that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service allocated to 12 different tribes in California and Nevada. It is part of the Tribal Wildlife Grant program that provides money exclusively to federally recognized American Indian tribes, and was created through the Related Agencies Appropriations Act of 2002.

“Tribal Wildlife Grants are much more than a fiscal resource for tribes,� U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Acting Director Rowan Gould said in a statement. “The projects and partnerships supported by this program have enhanced our commitment to Native Americans and to the United States’ shared wildlife resources.�

There were a total of 137 proposals submitted during the grant cycle before being narrowed down to the 12 recipients.

“This is a great opportunity,� West said. “The Yurok Tribe is just really excited about being able to help put the wild world back into balance.�

The Yurok Tribe has targeted 2012 for reintroduction, but West admitted that it could be pushed back or the entire program canceled if it’s found condors couldn’t survive in this area.

“With wildlife work and these kind of assessments there’s nothing definite about anything,� West said. “A lot of this is a feasibility study, and we are in no way interested in putting birds out into an environment that’s not safe or into an environment where they can’t thrive.�

[Judi]

This is great news!  The Portland Zoo (one of the condor recovery partners) has been studying ways to re-introduce them in the Pacific Northwest too so hopefully the 2 groups are working together.  Yay!