"Stone Soup" Saves Ongoing OHV Research
by Lisa Hayward Folk,University of Washington, Center for Conservation Biology
Soon we received news the crew had their birds. Although we'd heard owls on that site for three years, this was the first time they'd been located! It turned out to be a family of six: an adult pair, a subadult of indeterminate sex and three fuzzy fledglings. I've never seen a spotted owl family so big before. Shortly after nine we began a simulated enduro event at the site, with Amador, Bray and Cummings riding their bikes back and forth for an hour on a Forest Service road within a quarter mile of the owls. Meanwhile, Hartman and her crew of volunteer field researchers monitored the owls' behavior. Afterwards, they stayed on the territory until after dark, collecting scat for hormone analysis, ambient sound level recordings and further behavioral data. On a control site several miles away, another crew was collecting exactly the same type of data on owls that were not exposed to a simulated enduro.
This successful day of experiments was only one of many in the 2007 season, our most productive season to date in Shasta-Trinity National Forest, a season we owe largely to Don Amador himself. Three months earlier, it looked like we wouldn't be able to do field work at all. Two weeks before we were scheduled to begin, a lawsuit filed against the Off-Highway Motorized Vehicle Recreation (OHMVR) Commission froze all project funding. The Forest Service, the
Raymond Bray (left) and Bob Cummings of the Redding Dirt Riders, with Don Amador (right), BRC Western Representative. Luckily for us, Amador refused to hear "no." Instead he persevered, making personal phone calls to his rather extensive network of OHV organizations, business contacts, and government leaders. The going was a bit tough at first, but as Amador explained, he has some stubborn Norwegian blood in him that won't let him give up.
We knew that $36,000 was the minimum amount that we'd need to conduct any fieldwork. This barebones budget represented every conceivable cut, including my salary as project manager and housing costs for the crew (we figured we could camp). Still, no single group could front that kind of money on such short notice. Over a period of several days, Amador successfully convinced several parties to help support the project. Those groups included the American Motorcycle Association, Action Grant Program, BlueRibbon Coalition, Off-Road Business Association, and the Motorcycle Industry Council. With funds secured, I scrambled to make last minute hires to replace the crew I'd had to let go weeks earlier and to nail down rental vehicles and housing.
Hearing about our grassroots funding success, Region 5 Forest Service found $24,000 for our work. "This reminds me of that story, Stone Soup," I emailed to Amador, referring to the tale of a hobo with nothing who convinces skeptical townspeople to pitch in the ingredients for a delicious "soup from a stone." The walls of resistance were crumbling around us.
It didn't stop there, either. Two days before our colleague at Humboldt State University, Jeff Dunk, would be forced to pull the plug on his ongoing goshawk study, we received news that resolution was found on the legal side of this equation and OHMVR grant funds would, once again, be available for project funding. It felt like a miracle. All across California people were getting their jobs back and picking their OHV projects back up. When funding evaporates unexpectedly, many long-term projects may be dropped and never completed, as personnel are forced to find other work. Public funds invested in long-term research may be wasted on an order that boggles the mind. Amador says he's seen it happen before and he vowed to himself not to let it happen again.
While the Forest Service is charged with managing motorized vehicle recreation to protect threatened and endangered wildlife, very few studies on the effects of off-highway vehicles have been undertaken. This can be bad news for proponents of OHV access to public lands, because the policy of most federal agencies is to be conservative with restrictions in the face of uncertainty. Our study represents the only true collaboration of government agencies, wildlife biologists and local OHV riders to date. In a way, the fate of our research sets a precedent for all future collaborations to come.
Now I can look back on the experience of almost three months after having full funding restored and having recently wrapped up a productive season of data collection. Doing so, I feel enormous gratitude to Don Amador, not just for salvaging an important long-term research project, but for educating me about the power of an individual to alter what seems inevitable. From now on I'll evaluate adversity with a different perspective. I've seen the impossible become possible. This permanent change in perspective feels like as much of a gift as the chance to pursue our ongoing research in a critical year for the study. It's true; one person can make a difference.
—Lisa Hayward Folk is a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Washington's Center for Conservation Biology. She has managed the study of OHV impacts on the spotted owl since 2005. To find out more about this research, visit www.ohvstudy.com. For questions or comments, contact the BlueRibbon Coalition: 4555 Burley Drive, Suite A, Pocatello, ID, 83202. Phone: 208-237-1008, Fax: 208-237-9424. Email <brmag@sharetrails.org>.