.::: Pacific Wildlife Project :::. The Salton Sea


The Salton Sea, northeast of San Diego, CA.		The shore of the Salton Sea.
It all started in August 1996 with a phone call to Linda McLeod Evans, Director of Pacific Wildlife Project wildlife rehabilitation center. Clark Bloom, manager of the federal wildlife refuge at the Salton Sea explained that endangered Brown pelicans were dying at the sea and they needed help to save them. There were no other facilities in the area that shared the expertise or had the experience in treating pelicans as Pacific Wildlife Project. Director Evans did not hesitate to promise to do everything possible to help the pelicans. That commitment would ultimately save the lives of over 1200 pelicans devastated by avian botulism poisoning in the biggest pelican die-off in the nation's history. It would involve a massive recruitment of volunteers, donations and supplies and a coordination of the entire rehabilitation process, from setting up the first emergency First Aid station at the Salton Sea and training personnel there, to coordinating daily pick up of sick birds, then seeing the birds through the entire course of medical treatment and rehabilitation, to the eventual release back to the wild.