That was a heck of a storm we had Friday, Feb. 17. It was great for our water storage facilities like Lake Cachuma and other reservoirs, but it was tough on the land.
We the people suffered some damage and some injuries locally and our workers have been working diligently to clear the debris and keep city life and rural life running as smoothly as possible. I offer my sincere gratitude for all that hard and sometimes dangerous work.
The wild critters that call our neighborhoods, foothills and mountains home suffered much more horrifying terrors, devastation and death.
Animals that live in shallow burrows, for example, suffered loss of homes, and many died when total ground saturation combined with torrents of runoff and sudden erosion to soak their burrows or eradicate them with powerful runoff.
The smaller the critter, the tougher it was to muster strength to hold on and keep from being washed away. The harsh reality is we lost a great many smaller (and some large) critters which is devastating to the lower end of the food chain from insects on up to smaller mammals.
In the aftermath of those many losses of life, the larger animals of the food chain will have difficulty finding enough to eat. Finding water to drink is far easier than it has been in years, but a critter’s got to eat.
What can we do? Sadly, we are not prepared to go out into our countryside and system of creek beds to be of immediate and immense help to the general critter community when disaster strikes.
Here in Santa Barbara we have a nearly unbelievable number of nonprofits (including SOFTIN which I helped start) to help people and the environment.
But what few we do have that consider small critters seem far more interested firing off copious lawsuits to impede fishers and hunters than they do about actually caring for critters.
If we had a nonprofit that was honestly about helping and caring for the wild critter community, I’d be interested in employment as executive director of that fine organization. It would feel like the right thing to do.
As individuals, this is one time to break traditions such as “don’t feed wild animals.”
We share our communities with more critters than most folks realize … raccoons, possums, skunks, coyotes, feral cats and dogs. I believe they serve our communities by keeping down populations of nuisance critters like rats and mice and insects.
I’m feeling like it is time to put out some food for our critter neighbors
— Capt. David Bacon operates WaveWalker Charters and is president of SOFTIN Inc., a nonprofit organization providing seafaring opportunities for those in need. Visit softininc.blogspot.com to learn more about the organization and how you can help. Click here to read previous columns. The opinions expressed are his own.
