30 Years in the Making
As an individual who had involvement with legislation resulting in the creation and history of OWCN, I thought I might briefly share my recollection of how the organization got its start and what it has accomplished since then.
March 24, 1989 was a day of awakening for America and possibly for the world, when an oil spill from the oil tanker Exxon Valdez in Alaska covered Prince William Sound with 11 million gallons of crude oil, creating one of the largest environmental impacts in this sensitive area.
As the U.S. congress and State of Alaska were formulating and debating legislation to deal with oil spills, another spill from the American Trader tanker, on February 7, 1990, in Huntington Beach, California got the attention of California State legislators.
After nearly two years of debate and a couple of versions of draft legislation, the Lempert-Keene-Seastrand legislation was enacted to address oil spill prevention and response in the State of California. The law created the Office of Spill Prevention and Response (OSPR) in the Department of Fish and Game and named them the primary oversight agency for spill prevention and response in California.
OSPR immediately embarked on formulating regulations and publishing guideline documents, one of which dealt with oiled wildlife.
At that time, most oil companies relied on their contracts with International Bird Rescue to assist them in responding to oiled wildlife. However, the newly-regulated community felt that the responding agency needed to be a government or a quasi-government agency so that capabilities could be expanded and the response could be validated by a credible scientific agency that the public would trust. It became clear that U.C. Davis, with expertise in veterinary medicine, would be the best candidate for the task. Through new legislation by former Senator Diane Watson, Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN) was created. Dr. Jonna Mazet was later named the Director of OWCN, and she wasted no time in putting together a board of directors. I was fortunate and honored that she asked me to serve on the board.
Soon after, the organization embarked on creating the network and acquiring facilities and personnel for response. That was 30 years ago.
In the last 30 years, OWCN has brought many of us closer to better understanding the impact of oil spills and pollutants on wildlife. The organization has demonstrated an excellent model of cooperation among government, industry, environmental and wildlife scientists and the public through many of its programs, seminars, and in particular its volunteer program.
A few years ago, legislation expanded OWCN programs from the original focus on marine waters to a greater and broader task of caring for all oiled wildlife in marine environments and inland.
After 30 years, while the need for responding to wildlife is still with us, it is gratifying to see that OWCN has become one of the most respected and internationally known organizations in the area of oiled wildlife response, and supports a network of 45 affiliate Member Organizations throughout California. It is also impressive to note that OWCN has contributed $4.7 million, and counting, to research projects that deal with understanding and improving the response to oiled wildlife in the past 30 years.
Matt Rezvani