Ventana Wildlife Society

About Ventana Wildlife Society

Ventana Wildlife Society is a nonprofit conservation organization based in Salinas, California, founded in 1977 by a group of private citizens to restore endangered species native to the central California coast. It began by rehabilitating and releasing wildlife from a 240-acre site in the Ventana Wilderness, and today runs its programs from an office in Salinas along with public-facing sites in Big Sur, including a Discovery Center and a Research and Education Center at Andrew Molera State Park. The organization is not accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums; its primary work involves science-based species recovery rather than maintaining a traditional zoo collection.

The society is staffed by three full-time biologists along with seasonal interns, who monitor, track, and research endangered species, songbirds, and butterflies. It is best known for two long-running reintroduction programs: a bald eagle restoration project that ran from the mid-1980s through 2000, and an ongoing California condor release program that has continued since 1997. Alongside its field science, the organization runs educational programs for school children, including summer science camps and outdoor field trips.

History

Ventana Wildlife Society traces its start to 1977, when a 240-acre remote site in the Ventana Wilderness became a base for rehabilitating and releasing wildlife. In 1982 the organization added a release program for prairie and peregrine falcons, and in 1986 it began a bald eagle restoration project aimed at reintroducing the species to a region it had been absent from for 60 years; the project succeeded within a decade, and the bald eagle was officially declared recovered and delisted from the Endangered Species Act in 2007. A Research and Education Center opened at Andrew Molera State Park along Big Sur's Highway 1 in 1992, expanding the organization's public outreach and environmental education work.

In 1997, Ventana Wildlife Society joined federal and state efforts to reintroduce the California condor, becoming the only nonprofit releasing condors in California, and opened its Discovery Center in Big Sur in 2009 around an exhibition called "Bringing the Condors Home." The organization's condor work has not been without loss: in August 2020, an arsonist started the Dolan Fire, which burned through the society's 80-acre Big Sur Condor Sanctuary over two days, destroying a research building along with pens and other facilities, and killing ten adult condors and two chicks.

Exhibits and habitats

Most of Ventana Wildlife Society's facilities are working conservation sites rather than public exhibits. The Big Sur Condor Sanctuary, an 80-acre property that has served as the release point for captive-bred California condors since 1997, is not open for general visits. The organization's public-facing sites are its Discovery Center in Big Sur, which features an exhibition called "Bringing the Condors Home," and its Research and Education Center at Andrew Molera State Park, opened in 1992 to expand public outreach and environmental education. The society also maintains a website tracking radio- and GPS-tagged members of its free-flying Big Sur condor flock, along with a live-streaming camera operated in partnership with Explore.org.

Animal highlights

No species list or animal count is published for Ventana Wildlife Society, since the organization manages wild and released populations rather than a captive collection. Its core focus is the California condor, North America's largest flying land bird by wingspan at 9.5 feet, which the society has released into the wild from Big Sur since 1997 in partnership with state and federal agencies; it manages dozens of free-flying condors as part of that program. The organization also monitors a restored population of bald eagles along the central California coast, along with songbirds and butterflies as part of its broader research work.

Conservation and programs

Ventana Wildlife Society's bald eagle program released 70 juvenile eagles over 14 years between 1986 and 2000, aiming to establish four breeding pairs; by its most recent count the organization had documented 30 nesting territories along the central coast. Its condor program has recorded milestones including the first condor chick hatched in the wild in Monterey County in 100 years, in 2007, and a free-flying female condor spotted in San Mateo County in 2014 — the first sighting there since 1904. Lead poisoning from spent ammunition remains the leading cause of condor deaths; since confirming this in 2012, the society has provided free non-lead ammunition to hunters and ranchers to encourage a switch to copper ammunition. The organization also runs youth outdoor education programs serving communities from Castroville to Salinas and inland to Greenfield, taking more than 1,300 young people a year whale watching, kayaking, and hiking through partner sites including Elkhorn Slough and Pinnacles National Park.

Planning your visit

Ventana Wildlife Society's Salinas office, at 9699 Blue Larkspur Lane, is open Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., and the organization says visitors are welcome during those hours, with condor-themed merchandise available on-site. Its public-facing Big Sur locations — the Discovery Center and the Research and Education Center at Andrew Molera State Park — are separate from the Salinas office, but the material available here does not give their hours, admission, or parking details. Because the organization's primary release site is not open to the public and its programs change with the condor recovery effort, confirm current visiting details for any of its locations on the official website before planning a trip.