EDITORIAL: California condors return to the redwoods
Aug. 28—Years of dedicated work by wildlife agencies has brought the magnificent California condor back from the brink of extinction, and the arrival of four new birds to the mouth of the Klamath River promises to double the flock now soaring free over the redwoods for the first time since 1892. That's news worth celebrating.
The largest land bird in North America, the condor is a vulture with a wingspan of nearly 10 feet and a life span of more than 60 years. The population of wild condors steadily dwindled after European settlement of the West, the result of poisoning, pollution, poaching and habitat loss. By 1987, only 22 birds remained in the wild, and conservation agencies captured them all and placed them in captive breeding programs.
The programs were successful, and condors began to be released back into the wild a decade later. Today, more than 300 wild condors fly in California, Utah, Arizona and Baja California, Mexico. The new arrivals in Del Norte County, California, join four birds released earlier this year.
The releases are the work of the Yurok Tribe, which launched and has led the Northern California Condor Restoration Program since 2008. This is the northernmost release of condors so far, and plans are to continue releasing more birds there every year for two decades or more. The long-lived condors mate for life but don't breed until they are 8 years old, and produce only one chick every two years, so the restoration is a lengthy process.
The condors are especially important to the Yurok, who call them prey-go-neesh. Ultimately, they see the wild condors as an essential part of the temperate rainforest ecosystem in their ancestral territory. Condors play an important role in that ecosystem by disposing of carrion.
Unfortunately, that diet is also the biggest threat to their survival. Condors are extremely susceptible to lead poisoning, and animals killed with lead bullets can be fatal to condors. Lead poisoning causes 50% of condor mortality.
Hunters who are still resistant to switching to non-lead ammunition —and anglers who still use lead fishing weights — should take note. Establishing a self-sustaining condor population in the lower Klamath region will require everyone's cooperation.
The payoff will be the chance to see these huge birds soaring over the redwoods for the first time in more than a century.
