Countywide : County Votes Funds for Project With Audubon

The county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday backed up its 3-year-old agreement to join with the National Audubon Society in creating a community wildlife institute by voting to spend $35,500 over the next two years.

The institute is designed to develop programs to train park rangers, hold seminars for county staff workers, research and monitor wildlife populations and begin a five-year project to map the distribution of breeding birds within the county.

The county agreed to the institute program in 1984, but funds were never appropriated.

The county and the society, which operates Starr Ranch near Ronald W. Caspers Wilderness Park east of San Juan Capistrano, previously agreed to conduct a cooperative two-year study of mountain lions.

Supervisor Thomas F. Riley, whose district includes Caspers, said the new agreement also will include the cougar study.

“In light of the increasing interest in wildlife in this county, evidenced by the keen interest in mountain lions, and our stewardship responsibilities for the land and animals we now own, I believe this proposal represents an efficient and low-cost method of developing useful information and providing information to the public,” Riley said in a statement.

Last year, mountain lions mauled two children in separate incidents in Caspers, prompting county officials to close the park temporarily.