Although Poo died, his plight helped to make changes to protect other owls

CALIFORNIA -- Normally, volunteer fire lookout Allen Love spends his time scanning the horizon for fires, mapping out lightening strikes, relaying radio traffic and talking to visitors who climb the 172 steps to the top of Buck Rock Lookout.

But one day during the summer of 2010, he helped rescued a small owl from the septic tank in the outhouse below.

Although the owl died five days later, that rescue launched an effort to prevent animals from entrapment in other vault toilets in the District by installing screened caps on 12-inch vent pipes.

This small owl, nicknamed Poo, was rescued from the septic tank of an
outhouse next to Buck Rock Lookout in the Hume Lake Ranger District
of the Giant Sequoia National Monument. Although he died five days later,
his rescue launched an effort to prevent animals from entrapment in vault
toilets throughout the district. / Photo submitted by Diane Diebold

In the Hume Lake Ranger District this summer, 22 toilets were capped in Tulare County and this fall, 37 will be capped in Fresno County using $5,700 of Resource Advisory Committee (RAC) money, said Marianne Emmendorfer, district planner.

Owls are cavern-nesting birds and easily get trapped in toilet vaults after going down the vent pipes, Love said.

The owl, nicknamed Poo, was discovered by a septic tank pumping service in the outhouse next to Buck Rock Lookout. Love and Forest Service employee Nora Ratto, who patrols the Big Meadow area, pulled it out with help from visitors Wayne and Diane Diebold of Branson, Mo.

Going through the hole used for pumping out the vault, Love stuck a long board down the pipe, hoping the bird would get on the board so he could pull him out.

“Instead, [the owl] wanted to fight,” he said.

Next Wayne Diebold tried a broom handle. Somehow, while the bird was fighting the broom handle, the owl grabbed hold of it and held on tight. It took two attempts to raise him out.

“I didn’t want to pick him up,” Love said, “because he had sharp talons and a beak.”

And he was covered in human waste. Ratto offered her water bottle to rinse him off.

“We gave him a little shower with drinking water,” Love said.

Critter Creek, a nearby wildlife rehabilitation center in Squaw Valley, offered to help the owl. Poo was transported there on a fire engine.

After doing some research, Love said the owl was a Northern Saw-Whet owl.

“It gets its name from the sound it makes, like a saw being sharpened with a whetstone,” he said.

He called Critter Creek every day to get an update on Poo. At first, he improved but after five days, Poo succumbed to a bacterial infection, he said.

“This was such sad news as we had all tried to save this poor little feller,” he said. “Maybe his tragedy could save others.”

A screened cap installed on the vent pipe of this vault toilet prevents wildlife from
getting entrapped in the septic tank. It became an issue after an owl was rescued from
 the toilet next to Buck Rock Lookout in the Hume Lake Ranger District of the
Giant Sequoia National Monument. Submitted by the Sequoia National Forest

Love contacted the Teton Raptor Center in Jackson Hole, Wyo., and learned the problem is widespread. The center there designed its own cover for vent pipes on vault toilets.

He talked to the vault toilet manufacturer. It offers a cap for the vent pipe as an option at an additional cost.

“Now that I’m into it, all I do is drive around and look at toilets,” he said. “It’s getting taken care of but it has a long way to go. All we can do is work in our area.”

(Visalia Times-Delta - Aug 24, 2013)