Eagle Nest births new sustainability group
and thoughts on what to expect the eagles to do now their nest is obstructed
The eagle nest gave birth to a new sustainability group: UBC Community for Sustainable Development. Its inaugural meeting will be December 8, 2022. 7pm Wesbrook Community Centre. RSVP: UBCCommunity4SustainableDev@gmail.com.
Claire England announced the new group during a presentation to the UNA Board of Directors, November 24, 2022. Her presentation was an update on the nest status and UBC’s lack of direct response to concerned community members. The presentation was also a request for the UNA to take action. The UNA was specifically asked to call on the UBC Board of Governors to ensure that:
a) The cone is removed from the nest and UBC guarantee that the nest and surrounding 160m noise buffer zone will be protected from future interference, as implied in the 2011 WesbrookPlan*;
b) An answer is provided as to why the option of leaving the nest and surrounding 160m area free from development was not considered by UBC; and
c) UBC commit to carrying out more meaningful consultation for similar future decisions and responding directly to community concerns.
Claire pointed out that while UBC says they only became aware of the eagle nest being used around 2017, the documents show UBC was aware of the nest by 2011, but they considered it abandoned. In the 2022 UBC Properties Trust Eagles Nest Management Plan Summary Report, they say “In 2017, UBCPT was made aware of an active bald eagles’ nest at the corner of Ross Drive and Birney Avenue, immediately adjacent to their development lots.”
In the 2011 Wesbrook Neighbourhood Plan it says the nest will be in a protected area.
The 2011 Consideration Memorandum of Consultation Input includes the following:
Eagle’s Nest Adjacent to the Development Site - Feedback was received from residents regarding the eagles’ nest. What measures will the development take to address some of the concerns the residents have regarding the eagle’s nest. The eagles nest has existed for a long time. We are required by the Province to protect the zone around the eagle’s nest. The parcel immediately surrounding the nest will remain undeveloped as part of University Neighbourhood Open Space (UNOS). During the development process on Lots 7&8, UBC Properties Trust engaged an environmental consultant to prepare detailed instructions regarding a minimum setback that guided the footprint on the Lot 11 project, as well as impacts from construction activity during the nesting period.
In the 2011 South Campus (Wesbrook Place) Neighbourhood Plan the following statement can be found:
A new open space to accommodate the eagle habitat was incorporated into the proposal. The area and trees surrounding the eagle’s nest is being retained as green space with no housing allocated to that lot.
Accommodations were made in planning documents in 2011 when UBC noted the nest (which they considered abandoned). Changes were again made in 2017 once it was clear the nest was actively being used.
At the end of the meeting the UNA considered Claire’s request. In an email to me, Claire reports that:
The UNA directors seemed very supportive after our presentation, with [several] saying they supported our efforts and thought the nest was an important community issue. When directors discussed the issue in the Any Other Business part of the meeting they said it would be best for the Land Use Committee to take this up. … They passed a motion that the Land Use Committee should consider our requests and make recommendations to the [UNA] Board.
Sundance Topham, UNA Chief Administrative Officer, emailed this explanation:
“the motion was to refer the item to the Land Use Advisory Committee (LUAC). The discussion at the table noted that it was better to look at the issue in relation to overall land use as opposed to [look at it] in isolation, and that the LUAC was the best forum for the discussion.”
Meanwhile, back with the eagles.
The eagles in question have returned to their obstructed nest. Reports have been coming in about this for almost two months now. In the first sighting the eagles were seen flying circles over the nest calling out.
More recently there are as of yet no indications that they are moving to the artificial nest constructed by consultants several years ago, several hundred meters away, in the middle of a small thicket of smallish trees. Nesting behaviour isn’t expected to begin until January.
I asked UBC Properties Trust, UBC Campus and Community Planning, and the Chair of the UBC Board of Governors for comment. I received the following responses.
Paul Young, on behalf of UBC Properties Trust said this via email:
“I believe the eagles’ behaviour to date is exactly as expected by the biologists, including those who recommended the placement of the cone. Even in previous years, the eagles spend several weeks scanning the area from nearby trees before they situate themselves in the nest. We of course have engaged behavioural experts to observe and provide advice, they are starting their monitoring this week.”
The consultant monitoring the nest is the same one, Diamond Head Consulting, who has been working with UBC Properties Trust already.
Micheal White, AVP Campus Planning, shared the following:
“UBC Properties Trust continues to follow the advice of a Qualified Environmental Professional, and the direction of the BC Ministry of Forests, with both having expertise on eagle habitat and behaviour. The provincial direction to UBC aligns with the university’s approach to responsibly growing housing stock while reducing GHGs and supporting campus ecology and biodiversity. …
… Most recently, we have contacted the Ministry to learn more about eagle behaviour. From this, we understand it is common for eagles to return to their nesting area around this time of year to establish territorial dominance prior to the breeding season. Selecting or building a nest typically begins in January. Monitoring by the Qualified Environmental Professional continues. Representatives from the Ministry of Forests responsible for the approach to managing the Wesbrook eagle’s nest are best able to speak to eagle behaviour.”
Nancy McKenzie, Chair of theUBC Board of Governors, added this:
The Board of Governors received an information presentation in respect of the eagles’ nest in September’s open board session. The board expressed support for conservation efforts and the continued engagement of professional experts to support the UBC administration and UBC Properties Trust. I understand that they are actively seeking the advice of the responsible jurisdiction and external experts.
So, based on UBC’s collective opinion, we wait until January to see what the eagles will do.
Listening to the biologists
I emailed Myles Lamont research biologist with of the Hancock Foundation to ask him to comment on what we might expected. I also had the chance to speak with Peter Arcese, FRBC Chair of Applied Conservation Biology in the Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences and Faculty of Forestry.
Myles Lamont and the Hancock Foundation had been involved in the process on campus several years ago. But, as Myles notes they are not currently involved. Myles had this to say:
It is of course very difficult to predict the behaviour of any wild animal- particularly in response to human disturbances which are often very much individualistic in nature.
We have not been formally involved in this project for the better part of two years, so I am reluctant to speak to any specifics of the project as it is very likely I am not privy to a multitude of details relating to the site at this point. All I can suggest is that the installation of nest deterrents have been successfully employed in other [bald eagle] projects we have had involvement with, granted there are never any guarantees on outcomes.
A new approach we have been using more recently is ensuring there are funds set aside for further habitat enhancements elsewhere in the form of a mitigation bond in the event that the initial mitigation is unsuccessful. This provides some measure of compensation into the future that otherwise has not been available to us. Since we have not had any direct involvement with the project since ca. 2020, I cannot speak to whether UBC has pursued this avenue to ensure they have a Plan B in place in case the mitigation nest is not utilized.
Given the high profile of the nest, the significance of PR to the university and the attention this nest has brought to local residents, if we had any involvement at this time, my first recommendation to them would have been to ensure there is a backup plan in place in case the mitigation nest is not utilized in the 2023 year and provide a clear strategy to the public in the event the nest is not used. This can often take the form of habitat enhancements or improvements elsewhere on or off-territory, contributions to research to further our understanding regionally of [bald eagle] or other raptor populations, supporting inventories or other forms of population assessments, etc.
Peter had no direct involvement with UBC Properties Trust on the specific nest. I asked him to comment more generally on what we might expect from a pair of eagles in the situation their nest is no longer useable and about the more general resilience of bald eagles. Peter highlighted the effects of local population density and potential scarcity of alternative nest sites in his response to me.
Peter and I were both running between meetings on Thursday. I was sitting in my car with a phone on the last legs of its battery’s life when we were able to find a few minutes to talk about eagles. I explained what I was trying to figure out and Peter chatted casually with me about he subject until I saw my phone fading fast. What follows is my rendering of what Peter said to me with my own interjections removed.
“Most eagles,” Peter told me, “have multiple nests available to them. However, in the lower mainland, the eagle population is huge and growing extremely rapidly over the past 30, 40 years. I mean, there were 90 pairs of bald eagles in Washington state on the west side of the mountains in 1975 when I worked at the Burke Museum. And there's probably at least 900 pairs now. So they've been very resilient. that was a rare bird right, at one time because of DDT and persecution, and it has come back extremely well. And so there's no question about the resilience of the species on its own. On the other hand, it is disturbing to see them lose habitat of course. I've been at UBC long enough and watched that area developed. So it's always hard to see things go.
It's interesting to me that there would be an artificial nest erected. They've probably done that work based on some other studies that people have done. And I'm not familiar enough with that kind of fine scale management of individual nests to know how successful that's likely to be.
Most bald eagle nests are not used every year. That might not be the case in the lower mainland where nests are probably at a premium. But I've been working in the southern gulf islands for 40 years. And I know the nests really well. So typically, birds will have multiple nests. Sometimes they'll only be 100 meters away. Sometimes they might be four or 500 meters away.
They'll often swap between those in any case, because if they're used too many years in a row parasite loads can build up quite heavily.
Just like box nesting birds, it isn't actually that healthy. So many raptors, unless nest sites are short, like peregrine falcon areas, which you traditionally come back to because it's a cave that's very well situated or something.
But, nests of bald eagles, golden eagles, especially red tailed hawks, ravens, typically, they have multiple ones, and if they have the opportunity, they would probably more or less prefer to cycle through them. There's probably other evolutionary reasons for that because of course, you know what bald eagle nests are like. Some of them can weigh thousands of pounds. They tend to be on top of trees that will eventually age and die, especially if it's a poplar or cottonwood. And my guess is, over evolutionary time, most eagles defend access to multiple nests because there's always a probability they're going to lose one.
But in the lower mainland, eagles also represent an investment. Because an eagle doesn't build a nest, start building a nest right now, nest in it this spring. They're big, and so they probably invest in them slowly over years. They might occasionally build a nest right off the bat. But if you look at most of those nests, you'll see that they've been added to and they have layers in them. Nests will be a commodity for them. And because there are so many eagles in the lower mainland, which is a great thing, it could be that there's a relative shortage of nest. So I guess what I'm saying in the long way is that it is possible in some species, when the species become very common, that there is some fraction of that population that just doesn't have access to nest habitat.
I would feel bummed watching those eagles wanting to go to a nest that they expect to use, because they're going to be laying their eggs in February, not very long from now. So they're courting now. And so they probably did have, if you see them flying around, they probably had their eyes on that nest.
It’s always appreciated when a colleague can find the time to talk and share about these issues, especially when squeezed between other things in our busy professional lives.
Bald Eagles are impressive, individualistic, long lived birds that have demonstrated a collective resiliency that bodes well for the future of the Wesbrook pair. There are grounds for optimism, even as we acknowledge the unpredictability in outcome. Personally, I rather wish the nest had simply been left alone and the birds to their own devices. They may have stayed, or they may have left. We won’t ever really know. Now their ‘hand’ has been forced, they will have to leave.