Photo: American Barn Owls by Ryan Sanderson.
BY BRANDON PANENSKY
In late 2023, the Richmond Indiana Parks and Recreation Department was awarded partial funding of $830 for our Barn Owl Conservation Program. The program was outlined as follows:
The grant funds would allow us to purchase materials to make 30 Barn Owl boxes. The materials would then be delivered to the local Richmond High School Construction and Technologies class for construction. Local farmers/landowners who met the minimum qualifications could sign up to receive a box for free. The minimum qualifications included no pesticide use, a minimum of 35 acres of open farmland, and a preference to “no-till” agriculture. There was also a requirement to provide [the farmer’s or landowner’s] name, location of the box, contact information, and approval for proper authorities to come and inspect the boxes when needed. Upon completion, the recipients would be contacted to pick up their new Barn Owl box at our local farmer’s market. This was to give a central location for retrieval, as well as bring attention to our Parks-run farmer’s market to local farmers and landowners who would otherwise be unaware of its existence. In the end, a list of the recipients, box locations, and contact information would be provided to Indiana Audubon, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources (IDNR), and the Cornell lab of Ornithology, to log the locations of the boxes and inspect them for activity in the future.
The $830 was used to purchase enough materials for 20 out of the original proposed 30 boxes, and Carter Lumber was able to donate the materials for the remaining 10. The boxes were successfully completed by the high school course, though at a slower pace than anticipated. The boxes were completed in increments of 15, 10, 2, and 3 over the course of the year (2023- 2024), which led to a more complicated and staggered retrieval of the boxes.
Despite individual outreach and mass advertisement, finding farmers and landowners who wanted a box proved to be more difficult. It is possible that many were put off by the requirement to provide location and contact information, as the other requirements seemed favorable for the area. The boxes were originally planned to go out to one per person, but due to the low demand, some recipients were able to sign up to receive multiple boxes, as long as they met the requirements for each additional box. Luckily, those recipients were able to prove they had hundreds of acres of farm land to house the boxes.
Roughly 15 of the boxes were properly received at the farmers market, accomplishing part of our goal. Another 10 were picked up at the Parks Department’s greenhouse during the week when it fit the recipient’s schedule better, while the final 5 were delivered directly. As of the weekend of August 3rd, the program can be considered complete. The data will be sent to the IDNR and Cornell lab of Ornithology accordingly. Overall, the program was a success with very minor setbacks.
We hope that the confirmed Barn Owls in the neighboring counties will successfully reproduce, and their offspring will spread to this area to occupy the boxes in the coming years, allowing a more sustainable and conservation-friendly way to control pests at local farms.
Indiana Audubon’s Mumford and Keller program provides funding for natural resource research and projects, with a focus on Indiana’s birdlife. Learn more at indianaaudubon.org/mumfordandkeller.
This report originally ran in the December 2024–January 2025 print edition of The Cardinal.
Tags: grant report mumford and keller
