The California Fish and Game Commission has approved temporary protections for the western burrowing owl as officials consider listing it under the California Endangered Species Act. Environmental advocates say two decades of voluntary and regulatory efforts to protect the birds have not paid off and the state must step in with a stronger hand.
The owls tend to burrow in habitats adjacent to farmland in the Central, Coachella and Imperial valleys, leading agricultural interests to fear the protections could disincentivize farmers from adopting conservation practices. Large-scale solar developers, on the other hand, have embraced the push for more protections, arguing the industry is ready to step in with its own conservation strategy as the regions look to build out more projects on fallowed farmland.
In its petition for listing, the coalition of conservation groups pointed to the intensification of agriculture in California as one of several factors contributing to the decline of the owl population. Growth in the industry has led to the conversion of grasslands to “non-compatible forms of agriculture,” such as vineyards, almond orchards and flooded rice fields.
Before agriculture peaked, the density of the burrowing owl population in Imperial Valley — with 70% of the state’s breeding pairs — was low and in line with those living within the surrounding undisturbed desert. By the early 1990s, the population reached its zenith, proliferating as farming became more productive.
Yet owl numbers began to decline once the local irrigation districts signed a water transfer deal with San Diego County’s water provider. The Quantification Settlement Agreement led farmers to line canals with concrete and switch from flood irrigation to sprinkler systems, reducing the insect population the owls rely on as a food source. In the decade following the agreement, 46,000 acres of farmland were converted to industrial sites for large-scale renewable energy projects, which supply power to Southern California cities.
Jeff Miller, Center for Biological DiversityOther threats to the burrowing owl habitat listed in the petition include pesticide exposure; urban encroachment, particularly for Bay Area populations; vehicle collisions; predation by dogs, cats and wildlife; and the loss of ground squirrels, which dig the burrows the owls later inhabit. In turn, some of those altered landscapes — such as rangelands and golf courses — now provide habitat for the owls, California Department of Fish and Wildlife has noted.
CDWF counted 10,500 breeding pairs statewide in 2003, leading the commission to reject a petition for CESA listing. But the count dropped to 6,500 last year, driving the commission to unanimously approve the species as a candidate for listing during a hearing last week.
“Pretty much everywhere in the range, [the population] has declined,” said Jeff Miller, a senior conservation advocate at the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the petitioners, in his testimony to the commission. “We have noticed widespread population crashes since 2018. There are indications the 2024 nesting season appears to have been as dismal as 2023, which is pretty, pretty bad.”
Miller asserted the last two decades of state management and regulatory programs have failed to change the trend and the only way to do so is through stronger legal protections.
“Burrowing owls cannot wait any longer,” he said. “I love this species and I'd like to see them around for future generations throughout the state.”
The Large-scale Solar Association agreed, expressing support for the petition. Executive Director Shannon Eddy urged the agencies to go further, saying that “merely listing a species assures neither its recovery nor its conservation.” She called for “hard work and smart investments” to ensure an abundance of the species.
Those smart investments are ones that help to add 165,000 megawatts to the energy grid over the next 20 years to meet the state’s net-zero climate target. Eddy said nearly half that energy load needs to come from solar and, pointing to an industry conservation strategy, estimated the broad solar rollout would provide hundreds of thousands of acres of permanently protected mitigation lands and $3.5 billion in conservation spending.
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Eddy took issue with claims in the petition citing solar projects as a major factor in the decline of the burrowing owl.
“We are a country divided, and we need to stand against false rhetoric, and we need to dispel the kind of specious assertions like these that turn regulators and the public against one of our best tools to address the climate crisis,” she said. “What's really true is thousands of acres of at-risk native desert and grasslands habitat have been permanently protected as a result of solar projects.”
Similarly, the California Building Industry Association viewed its development efforts as dovetailing with the governor’s and the Legislature’s housing goals.
“But the industry does find itself facing great challenges because the pace of listings and other regulatory changes in the state,” said Clark Morrison, a natural resources lawyer representing the association. “We have the Joshua tree, we have the mountain lion, we have the Crotch bumblebee, the tricolored blackbird — all of these regulatory efforts are fairly recent.”
He claimed the commission’s decisions on listing species for CESA protections have slowed housing projects and led developers to abandon others that cannot meet the environmental requirements.
“We do have this vast regulatory structure and the owl is already protected from take under various provisions in game codes,” said Morrison.
Mark Lynes, who directs public policy at Audubon California, replied that he is confident the state can list the species and still meet its goals for housing, renewable energy and agriculture. He looked to collaborations for protecting tricolored blackbirds for providing valuable lessons for burrowing owls.
Audubon has partnered with the California Farm Bureau on a program to pay farmers to delay harvests for dairy forage crops to support blackbirds, which gained a CESA listing in 2018. Dwindling native habitat has forced the birds to rely on winter silage crops, according to the farm bureau. Farmers receive compensation for any crop losses. The program has helped to nearly double the blackbird population over the last 10 years.
Though it opposed the petition, the farm bureau echoed the solar association’s comments that industries can offer benefits for conservation efforts.
“The farm bureau believes farming and wildlife can and do coexist throughout California, as farmers and ranchers provide critical habitat for wildlife,” said policy advocate Richard Filgas. “Conversely, wildlife protection laws can sometimes make farming and ranching a challenge.”
Farmers worry that allowing habitat to develop on their property would unwittingly attract burrowing owls, creating a dynamic in which routine farming activities accidentally harm the species and lead to civil and criminal liability, said Filgas. He pointed to state fish and game codes ensuring farmers are not liable for such incidental takes and said those provisions have not alleviated the significant concerns his members have raised over the potential listing. The owls “are simply everywhere” in the Imperial Valley, he said.
Accidental takes must be reported within 10 days, and fines for killing a listed species can range up to $50,000 for each violation.
The Imperial Irrigation District strongly opposed considering the owls for listing as well. Jessica Humes, a senior environmental project manager, explained the district’s efforts to implement a conservation plan for the owls along its canal and drainage system since the 2003 transfer agreement. It maintains continuous monitoring of the owls and trains workers on ways to minimize impacts.
“It's true that farming and wildlife can be compatible. We understand that,” responded CDFW Director Chuck Bonham, who attempted to ease the agricultural concerns. “It's an important acknowledgement that the fish and game code has a section about flexibility and mechanisms to deal with accidental impact from otherwise routine activities.”
Bonham shared excitement over the potential for partnerships between agriculture and solar companies to create more habitat and said he is eager to work with IID on gathering any data to inform CDFW’s analysis of the owl’s status over the coming year. Bonham also recognized the state’s housing needs and agreed a regulatory structure is already in place for protecting the owls, stressing that it will help the department to “hit the ground running” with its assessment and that CDFW is “not starting from zero.”
The commission echoed the sentiment.
“It's not this choice we have to make between renewable energy or housing, or food production and protecting wildlife,” said Commission Vice President Erika Zavaleta. “We have shown as a state we can do both.”
Commission President Samantha Murray added that the protective measures in place for decades “just don't seem to be effectively changing the trajectory of this species.” She believed CESA, in minimizing the takes, “really can make a difference in the trajectory of the western burrowing owl.”
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