Newsflash

SAVING THE CALIFORNIA CONDOR

A cherished icon of the West, the  prehistoric-looking California condor remains one of the world’s most endangered species. North America’s largest avian narrowly escaped extinction in the mid-1980s when the last 22 wild California condors became star participants in a captive-breeding program. Thanks to those efforts, more than 140 condors flew freely in California and Arizona by 2007. But recovery is still in jeopardy: more than 40 percent of all released condors have died or been returned to captivity.

Poisoning by ingestion of lead shot — scavenged along with carcasses left behind by hunters — is one of the most widespread and preventable causes of condor deaths. The Center’s Get the Lead Out Campaign has called on California and Arizona to require the use of non-lead ammunition within the condor’s range, resulting in California’s historic Ridley-Tree Condor Preservation Act. We’re also campaigning to reduce habitat loss, leading a broad coalition to preserve Tejon Ranch — a biodiversity hotspot containing vital habitat for the condor — as a national or state park. We’ve fought to block a series of sprawling developments that would forever change Tejon and moved against a proposal to grant the ranch’s owners a “license to kill” condors to make development easier.

We’re vigorously opposing the Bush administration’s plans to expand oil and gas drilling in Los Padres National Forest, including surface drilling next to the Sespe Condor Sanctuary. We submitted a comprehensive, scientifically based conservation plan for Southern California’s four national forests to protect condors, and we’re challenging the Forest Service’s management plans for these forests, which would allow more environmental damage and harm condor habitat. Our influence on past management plans for these forests has resulted in the inclusion of protective measures such as using non-toxic antifreeze in vehicles and retrofitting power lines to prevent condor electrocutions.