Action timeline

April 7, 2003 – The Center and five allies petitioned to protect the California population of the western burrowing owl under the California Endangered Species Act.

December 4, 2003 – The California Fish and Game Commission voted 4-0 to reject our burrowing owl petition, based in part on a second contradictory agency report blatantly biased against listing and widely criticized by conservationists and owl experts as fraught with inaccuracies and inconsistencies.

February 2, 2004 – Documents obtained by environmental groups through a California Public Records Act request reveal that the California Department of Fish and Game suppressed an agency report recommending that the western burrowing owl be considered for endangered or threatened status under the California Endangered Species Act.

September 22, 2010 – New surveys showed a 27-percent drop in the number of breeding burrowing owls in California’s Imperial Valley, providing some of the most striking evidence yet that the species is badly in need of state protections.