GROWLS - 16 July 2008 Minutes of Meeting

Attendance: 12 people. Chaired by Liz Ciocea. Start 1900L hrs.

OLD BUSINESS:

Web Site: Now up-and-running. Attaboys to Mark Hendricks and Ted Leather for their work. Send comments & suggestions for improvement to growls@shaw.ca . Typists are required in order to get currently used hard-copy correspondence put into the web site (see Liz);
Raptor Rhapsody: The Thursday, 21 August GROWLS-hosted event will require volunteers to assist the attending audience. If you ever wondered what appeal a totally dark sky, soft music and the sounds of Night Creature holds, come out and experience R² (starts @ 10:00 p.m. Be an Usher, ‘Shusher’ and listener). Contact Liz @ 250.247.8805 if able to help;
Eelgrass Workshop: The 5th of July event was reviewed by Marcelle Glock. Eelgrass is an important building block in Nature’s structure which impacts many links in the food chain. Oregon has lost 80% of it’s eelgrass due to human interference: BC has lost 15%, but . . . with education . . . it is hoped that number can be held, and hopefully reversed;
Buck-In-Pool Incident: Joanne McLeod requested that GROWLS provide some historical documentation regarding last October’s rescue. Dar will provide;

Mudgefest GROWLS’ers: A GROWLS kiosk will be set-up for the Sunday, 3 August event on Mudge Island. 6 GROWLS volunteers (positions filled) will be ferried over/back by island residents;
GROWLS Brochure: A re-print of the GROWLS handout is in progress. Comments and suggestions to Liz;
Gas Chits On-Island: It was proposed that members could be recompensed for rescues on-island as well as off. Consensus deemed that it was not necessary at this point;
Helicopter Support: Our seal pups get airlifted to Saltspring Island by a volunteer pilot/owner (see Web site ‘Friends Of GROWLS’). There have been 8 pups flown so far this season from Gabriola. Since this volunteer only gets approximately 43% of his operating costs reimbursed, it was proposed that other avenues for recompense be sought to ease his debt-load, and to continue his motivation for animal rescue flight. Bob L will investigate;

Case Studies:

Wildlife	Lived	Died	Unk	Comments
seal pups	8	2		4 prem’ies, 4 newborn (doing well); 2 newborn very dehydrated (died).
deer		3		all vehicle collisions
deer - fawn	1	2	1	1 vehicle death, I unknown death, one hit by cyclist, one abandoned in woods
bird	3		5	various injuries
raccoon	1	1		1 live-trap, released; 1 injured euthanized
sea lion		1		dead on beach
otter			1	baby found alone, monitored, presumed reunited with mother
rabbit	1			live-trapped; referred to SPCA

As a result of these incidents, the following points were gleaned:

Members are reminded that Live-Traps are available to capture and re-locate any pesky critters (i.e. that execution of wildlife is not the only option available to frustrated homeowners);
Animals occasionally die while being transported. Transporters should inform the GROWLS P-P (Pager-Person), or Liz, of this fact so that in-place hand-off arrangements and facility reception plans can be cancelled. The deceased animal may need to undergo necropsy, in which case the P-P will coordinate the carcass destination. Should necropsy not be required, the animal carcass can be left with any veterinary service for further processing.
When conducting any animal searches in the island areas, it is necessary to account for all search members at the completion of the search. If – as a search member – you are not returning to the start/congregation point following the search, please tell someone who is . . . so that you are ‘accounted for’ and not presumed missing;
Pager Reception: Occasionally, calls to the GROWLS phone number do not activate the pager in some locations on-island. To reduce this likelihood, the pager batteries are being changed every 1st-of-the-month. P-P’s are encouraged to randomly check-in with the recorded messages to ensure that none are missed.

The meeting was adjourned at 2045L hrs. The next monthly meeting will be Wednesday, 20 August @ 1900L hrs in the Rollo Centre.

Sheila Lake, 247-8886