Purpose
To test the feasibility of creating artificial burrows and their use by Burrowing Owls on the grassland preserves throughout western Placer County.
Project
The project will build several artificial burrows on Placer Land Trust (PLT) lands in west Placer County and monitor the success of both the old burrows and new ones to determine the feasibility of applying this more widely.
Project Background
Burrowing Owls are in steep decline throughout their range and have been extirpated from much of their range in California and nearly extirpated from Placer County.
Although many owls have had limited breeding success with the use of artificial burrows, PLT has had good results using artificial burrows on one of their vernal pool grasslands preserved north of Lincoln. These burrows are being used both by wintering owls and have produced a number of successful broods over the past few years.
Of greatest interest to this study is PLT’s success with above-ground burrows. This is especially important since much of the lands that will be preserved in west Placer are vernal pool grasslands and the conditions that make for good vernal pools (hard claypan to retain water) cause underground burrows to flood. These above-ground structures can be used in wet as well as dry years.
