Inland Oiled Wildlife Response: It’s a Different Animal

ABSTRACT 2017-311 The Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) was established in 1994 to address the need for timely, consistent, and professional science-based preparedness and response for wildlife at risk from oil spills occurring in the marine waters of California. Its mission focused on providing a high level of professional care based on the best available technology and science combined with the experience of many organizations that were pioneers in the field of wildlife rehabilitation. Since that time, the OWCN and its now more than 35 members have responded to over 100 spills while caring for more than 8,200 impacted animals. In 2014, in response to the increased risk due to changing sources and transport patterns in oil coming to refineries in California, the State legislature expanded the OWCN’s responsibility to include responding to oiled wildlife impacted during oil spills in all surface waters of California. Since then, the OWCN has worked to expand its plan and resources to ensure readiness to provide best achievable capture and care to a host of new species in the myriad of habitats and locations found in a large and ecologically diverse state. The biggest challenges to this expansion are the increased diversity of species and their habitats (California has 233 species and subspecies of reptiles and amphibians), and the increase in geographical scope. Working with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (specifically the Office of Spill Prevention and Response, or OSPR), the OWCN staff have identified species at risk and response challenges unique to an inland environment and terrestrial species and the appropriate resources meet those challenges and fill current gaps. We have incorporated lessons learned by colleagues during wildlife responses to inland spills including CNR Lake Wabamun (2005), Enbridge Kalamazoo River (2010), Silvertip Pipeline Yellowstone River (2011), and CNRL Cold Lake (2013). We have repurposed and redesigned existing equipment as well as acquiring additional mobile equipment to increase capacity and decrease response time. We have identified and trained first responders over a wide geographical area focusing on regions with increased risk of incident and impacts while leveraging our current primary care facilities with field stabilization and wildlife transportation plans to achieve maximum flexibility and cost effectiveness. We detail both the process that was used to develop this expansion and the resulting additions to the wildlife plan aimed to provide best achievable care to all wildlife species impacted by an inland oil spill in California.