"The return of the condors to the skies over the redwoods represents a significant milestone in the restoration of this magnificent forest to its former glory"

At 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 3, the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National and State Parks will facilitate the release of the first two California condors to take flight in the center of the bird’s former range since 1892. 

Prior to their release, the condors must voluntarily enter a designated staging area with access to the outside world. If the birds do not enter the transition zone by 4pm, a second attempt to release the birds will occur at 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, May 4. The carefully designed release procedure is one component of a comprehensive management plan for the reintroduction.

“For countless generations, the Yurok people have upheld a sacred responsibility to maintain balance in the natural world. Condor reintroduction is a real-life manifestation of our cultural commitment to restore and protect the planet for future generations,” said Joseph L. James, the Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “On behalf of the Yurok Tribe, I would like to thank all of the individuals, agencies and organizations that helped us prepare to welcome prey-go-neesh (condor) back to our homeland.”

“The return of the condors to the skies over the redwoods represents a significant milestone in the restoration of this magnificent forest to its former glory,” remarked Redwood National and State Park Superintendent Steve Mietz.  “This project is a model for listening to and following the lead of the park’s original stewards, healing both our relationship with the land and its original people.”

“The reintroduction of condors into Northern California is truly a monumental moment,” said Paul Souza, Regional Director for U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Pacific Southwest Region. “This effort builds upon the program’s collective knowledge and history of releasing condors and showcases the benefit of partnering with Tribes and others to implement recovery of listed species.  We are proud to support this collaborative and innovative partnership with the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National Park.  Together we can recover listed species for future generations.”

The livestream will begin at 7:30 on the Yurok Tribe’s Facebook page, which can be found here: www.facebook.com/TheYurokTribe/. The livestream can also be viewed here: https://www.yuroktribe.org/yurok-condor-live-feed.

Comprised of biologists and technicians from the Yurok Tribe and Redwood National Park, the Northern California Condor Restoration Program (NCCRP) will collaboratively manage the flock from a newly constructed condor release and management facility in Northern California, near the Klamath River. The NCCRP team will work collaboratively with the other condor field teams as part of the larger California Condor Recovery Program guided by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service).  

Two more condors will be released at a later date. Staggering condor releases is a management strategy that allows close observation and management of individual birds. Following releases, biologists must monitor condors to see that they display appropriate behavior. The four condors, including one female and three males, are between two and four years old, which is within the ideal age range for the successfully releasing condors to thrive in the wild. Two of the males were hatched at the Peregrine Fund’s World Center for Birds of Prey in Idaho. The other two condors were hatched at the Oregon Zoo and raised at the Idaho center. In September, the four birds were transferred to the Ventana Wildlife Society’s flight pen in San Simeon while finishing touches were put on the NCCRP facility. They were transported to the NCCRP site in late March.

Over the last 30 years, the Service’s California Condor Recovery Program has developed an exceptionally effective blueprint to guide the reintroduction process, which begins long before the birds are released. For example, reintroduced condors are reared in large flight pens with exposure to the natural environment and when possible, other condors of various ages for mentorship. The extremely social avian scavengers acquire life skills from their elders and their own experiences. Elder or mentor birds assist the juvenile condors in obtaining the worldly knowledge they need to survive outside of captivity. The World Center for Birds of Prey provided the NCCRP a seven-year-old condor to fulfill this important function for the four birds as they transition into the wild. Condor 746 will remain in the flight pen and is expected to mentor future release birds at this location. Similar to the reintroduced condors in Arizona, the Northern California flock will be considered a nonessential, experimental population under the Endangered Species Act. This pragmatic approach was selected because it has proven to be an effective method of recovering federally listed species. Additionally, the stakeholder-driven strategy better facilitates proactive conservation and reduces the regulatory impact of reintroducing a federally listed species.

At regular intervals, the NCCRP will be releasing new condor cohorts into Redwood National Park. Over time, the birds are expected to disperse across Northern California and Southern Oregon. Through careful management, the NCCRP’s primary goal is to develop a self-sustaining condor population in the rural region, which will fill a currently vacant ecological niche in the redwood forest ecosystem as well as aid in the overall recovery of the species.

“Every year, the Yurok Tribe completes multiple, largescale river and forest habitat improvement projects in our ancestral territory. We also manage a 15,000-acre Old Growth Redwood-Forest and Salmon Sanctuary. Condor reintroduction is a major part of our long-term plan to restore the diverse ecosystems within our homeland,” said Frankie Myers, the Yurok Tribe’s Vice Chairman. “As a people, we will not recover from the traumas of the last century until we fix our environment because our culture, our ceremonies, our wellbeing and our identity are inextricably linked to the landscape.”

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