Save Our Amazing Raptors

The Youth Council Team after a visit to the Ojai Raptor Center.

In Fall of 2023, Green Valley Project Youth Council worked with the Ojai Raptor Center and the CREW field staff to build and install two barn owl boxes and a raptor perch at Nordhoff High School. On December 12, two rehabilitated juvenile barn owls were released at the school.

An interested bird stopped by the box to check it out.

We worked with Ojai Raptor center to pick a design our owl box and determine the proper methods for how to build the boxes and where to install them.One of the boxes has a nearby wildlife camera provided by PAX Environmental to monitor if and when the box becomes inhabited by a family of barn owls.

A rehabilitated barn owl that we released at Nordhoff High School.

Another key element of their project was to raise awareness of the negative effects of rodenticides on an ecosystem. The owl boxes were a demonstration of a more natural pest management system. We received 60 signatures from residents in Ojai Valley pledging to not use rodenticides in their homes.

Finally GVP members helped to plant over 800 native plants with the Ojai Valley Land Conservancy and trees with Ojai Trees to help build raptor habitat at the East End Preserve at the Turtle Conservancy!