LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Did you know there's an owl preserve in Northwest Las Vegas?
It's called the Rainbow Owl Preserve, and if you blink you'd miss it — it spans two plots of land near Gilcrease Orchard, tucked in between homes on the corners of Rainbow Boulevard and Jo Marcy Drive, and Donald Nelson Avenue and Rio Vista Street.
More than 100 burrowing owls have fledged — when a bird gets its adult feathers and is able to fly and leave the nest — over the six acre preserve in the last decade.
WATCH | Conservation program looks to buy land home to Northwest Las Vegas owl preserve
John Hiatt with the Red Rock Audubon Society — one of the organizations that helps keep up the preserve along with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — showed me around, pointing out different man-made burrows where owls make nests and raise their chicks deep underground.
"This land, prior to purchase, was plotted out as eight lots and slated for development," John told me.
Around 2014, though, burrowing owls were spotted on the property and the land owner decided to preserve it.
"I just find the opportunity to actually see these birds is really exciting, and to begin to understand how unique they are," John said.
Kimberly Goodwin, the Clark County Desert Conservation Program's (DCP) Principal Environmental Specialist, tells me burrowing owls aren't listed on the Federal Endangered Species Act, but they've been in decline for decades.
"The burrowing owl is a fascinating species," Kimberly said. "It's one that's relatively tolerant of humans, so it's not uncommon to find them nesting on vacant parcels, especially here in the Northwest part of the Valley."
Aside from being a really cool place to visit, I went out to the Rainbow Owl Preserve because the DCP has a proposal out right now to buy the land for just over $3 million.
"I'm sure people will be seeing this and think, 'Hey, that's public money,' so why is this a worthwhile purchase for the county?" I asked Kimberly.
"It's actually not county money, there are no county general treasury funds used towards the acquisition of this project," she explained. "All of the funding will be provided through the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act — that money is generated through the sale of public lands here in the Las Vegas Valley, and goes directly back into the community through various initiatives, including conservation initiatives."
In this case, that would mean protecting these little owls and their nesting grounds for years to come.
"The Rainbow Owl Preserve is a great opportunity for our program to engage in education and outreach for our community," Kimberly said. "It's in an urban setting — there's traffic going by, there are houses right next to the property — so it's really accessible."
"People can see them and become acquainted with them, and recognize their value to the ecosystem," John Hiatt, with the Red Rock Audubon Society, said.
The Clark County Desert Conservation Program and Bureau of Land Management are looking for public comments on this proposal through June 3, then it will go through a few committees and ultimately the U.S. Interior Secretary for final approval.
If you'd like to write in, you can email your comments to snplma@blm.gov, or you can deliver them to the BLM's Southern Nevada District Office located at 4701 N Torrey Pines Drive.
If there's something going on in the Northwest Valley that you think I should know about, you can let me know by sending me an email: Guy.Tannenbaum@KTNV.com.
