Blog

As a part of our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and access (DEIA), we will be interviewing figures from our community and Network who are leading DEIA efforts in their organizations and presenting those interviews here, in the OWCN blog, to serve as inspiration for others.

Our first interview in this series was with Nicole Cropper, the newly-appointed Deputy Director of Justice, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW).

This first piece is called, “Don’t Forget to Celebrate”.

Our blog has covered various OWCN Management Team perspectives on last year's Tanzanite Park spill response. Now it is time to hear from responders from some of our OWCN Member Organizations. We asked Megan from Sonoma Wildlife Rescue and Mackenzie from International Bird Rescue to share some of their experiences during the Tanzanite Park response. As experienced wildlife caregivers, but brand new OWCN responders, we think their stories offer a unique perspective into what it's like to respond to an oil spill as part of the OWCN. 

When many of us think about oiled wildlife, our minds immediately jump to the worst – a massive oil spill on the coast with hundreds of seabirds washed up on the beach, or the inland spills of late – Tanzanite Park, Toro Canyon, Cuyama. But, did you know that the Oiled Wildlife Care Network supports our member organizations in caring for hundreds of individually oiled animals each year? In fact, since Refugio, our individually oiled patients have far outnumbered our spill patients

I am just shy of my one-year anniversary with the OWCN Management Team (June 2023) and starting to reflect on all the events that have happened in this short period, from responding to my first oil spill at Tanzanite Park in November, to welcoming my first child in December. 

Maybe you have gone birding and seen a bird with a band on it, or been strolling the beach in southern California and seen a banded Snowy Plover? If so, consider yourself lucky! Seeing a banded bird (especially if you don’t know where to look) is a bit of a rare sight, even though the USGS’s Bird Banding Lab (BBL) works around the clock to help manage and keep track of all the bands that researchers use as well as all the band “returns” that get reported back to the BBL when birds with bands are spotted.

As many of you may have read by now, the OWCN Management Team is deeply saddened by the sudden and untimely loss of Matt Blake, the One Health Institute's Chief Operating Officer, the OWCN's manager of administration and communications, and Oilapalooza's main Dad for the reception's "jokes". Matt passed Monday, 20 February 2023 from an acute medical condition, and is desperately missed by his wife Sarah, two 13-year-old twin daughters Charlotte and Delilah, and a community in shock and sorrow.

A couple of weeks ago, our team headed down to Bakersfield to visit our Member Organization, CALM (California Living Museum), and were treated with a tour of their new Wonderful Wildlife Care Clinic, which will be utilized during local oil spill responses and is the very first inland oiled wildlife care facility.

- Lorraine Barbosa, Senior Manager: Care Operations

In August of 2021, five months into my tenure with the Oiled Wildlife Care Network, I mobilized to my first ever oil spill response. Some of you may recall the Toro Canyon Creek Incident, most notably for the 92 California and Baja California Treefrogs that were successfully rehabbed and released following months of exposure to crude oil in their environment.

Jack Alfred Ames graduated from Great Falls High School in Montana in 1959, attended American River Junior College, then earned a B.S. in Life Sciences at Sacramento State College in 1967.

Do you have a favorite park? I’m not talking about Yellowstone or Yosemite. I mean a local community park. Either one that you grew up near, playing on the swings and basketball court or maybe it’s your favorite quiet place to walk your dog. Can you picture it?