Community Safety through Rescue, Emergency Response, and Preparedness

Community Safety

County of Los Angeles

Expand existing project, program, or initiative

Birds are sensitive indicators of changes in our environment. Experts around the world agree that aquatic birds are in crisis and that their health is failing. The causes of this population collapse are almost all caused by humans, and affect us as well. They include injury from illegal shootings, habitat disruption and loss, starvation, pollution (including plastics, chemicals, and oil spills), and climate change. LA is especially important to hundreds of species of aquatic birds (many that are endangered or threatened) because of its central location on the Pacific Flyway: a major North-South migratory route along the coasts of North and South America. Immediate human impact here has concentrated, long-term effects on the global wildlife population. As a globally-recognized leader in human-wildlife conflicts, we are uniquely positioned to make a difference through both direct service, and by giving people ways to take action meaningful and effective action that saves lives.

At our Los Angeles Wildlife Center, our Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitate program serves an average of 1,500 native birds each year, and releases them back into the wild. Since our inception, we have rescued and rehabilitated over 160,000 wild animals, representing over 115 different species. We also respond to unpredictable yet sadly inevitable environmental crises in our Emergency Response and Preparedness program. Over the past 50 years, we have responded to over 250 environmental disasters, many of which affect Los Angeles and Southern California. We treat the most challenging injury cases that are beyond the capacity or skills of other regional wildlife centers and clinics, and respond to the most acute environmental disasters (such as oil and chemical spills) when they occur, in real time. While many focus on systemic issues such as habitat loss/conservation, we provide equally important, immediate, and present day responses that mitigate human impact and save and improve the lives of individual animals and people. We've extended our impact with our free Bird HelpLine, that helps people and birds through conservation, advocacy, and environmental literacy that builds empathy and encourages positive action.

LA County will be different because regular citizens will become environmental champions. They will develop environmental literacy and express empathy as they keep themselves safe, and rescue birds in distress, saving future generations. Because we provide our rescue, rehabilitation, response, and Bird HelpLine services for free to the public on an ongoing basis, we keep our skills and our facility ready to respond to unpredictable, yet sadly-inevitable environmental crises that occur, such as the three well-publicized catastrophes we responded to in the last two years: the Long Beach Harbor Seabird Rescue (which saved over 3,000 near-threatened Elegant Terns after a human-piloted drone crashed in their nesting grounds), the Amplify Pipeline Rupture near Huntington Beach, and the 2022 Pelican Crisis.

As a science-based organization, we track data from the Bird HelpLine, from crisis responses, and from rescue patients (using RaptorMed software). Every treated bird is banded and can be tracked in the wild by other scientists, volunteers, or enthusiast. We are one of the few organizations that possess the federal permit to band birds. Birds successfully rehabilitated are given "second chances" and return to a normal life. They participate in normal species behavior, such as producing and rearing offspring. Each of these outcomes is an important component of a balanced, diverse ecosystem. Our scientific data provides strong evidence that birds injured by human impact that we successfully rehabilitate (whether the impact is from oil, pollution, or other forms of human-caused Human Wildlife Conflicts such as habitat loss, food scarcity, abandonment, climate change, or fishing entanglements) lead lives that are long and productive.