Oilapalooza 2022!

On October 22-23rd the Oiled Wildlife Care Network hosted its biennial conference, Oilapalooza! This two-day conference is hosted by OWCN for its Network of Member Organizations and consists of lectures, interactive activities, and hands-on workshops. This year we held the conference at our home base in Davis, CA. We had over 175 attendees (between our in-person and virtual opportunities) from greater than 35 of OWCN’s Member Organizations, as well as some affiliated agencies and colleagues.

We kicked off the conference with a warm welcome from our Director, Dr. Mike Ziccardi, as well as updates from California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response (CDFW-OSPR), OWCN Field Operations and OWCN Care Operations. We also welcomed 3 new Member Organizations: National Marine Mammal Foundation, Gold Country Wildlife Rescue, and Wildlife Innovations and had multiple lectures from across the globe.

During the afternoon session, participants rotated among breakout groups and got to help solve a problem that developed in escape room fashion (an animal had gone missing, and we needed to find the thief and recover the missing animal!). Everyone had a great time, and we appreciate our friends at Escapely for facilitating an exciting activity. Following all the excitement our responders had the opportunity to join us for appetizers, drinks, and the traditional OWCN raffle. It was a fun filled day and we always appreciate the opportunity to connect with our amazing Network.

But wait, there’s more! During the second day of our two-day event Network members had the opportunity to choose from 8 different workshops including: Bats 101, Snake Safety, Wildlife Capture techniques, Biosecurity and many more!

Click here to view the entire Oilapalooza program.

Love the OWCN Blog? Big news: We’ve Moved

Have you missed getting notifications regarding new blogs? Well, we’ve moved the blog directly to the OWCN website. Once you’re on our homepage scroll down and click on the “latest on the OWCN Blog” widget. From there, you will be able to access our blogs. To find out when new blogs are posted on the website, we encourage our readers to follow us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn). 

Upcoming events for the OWCN Responders:

November 15th – Basic Responder Training from 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM: Open to all OWCN responders that have an active profile AND have completed the Core Webinar Series.

Questions: Email us at OWCN@ucdavis.edu

Have a wonderful fall season.

Danene