Contacts
Marc Weitzel, (805) 644-5185
Remote Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, located north of Fillmore in Ventura County, is an area of rugged canyons and rocky pinnacles, so isolated that there is no electrical power to the refuge buildings. The old ranch house and condor rearing facilities serve a critical role as the principal research station for restoration of the endangered California condor in the Sespe Condor Sanctuary and other wilderness areas in southern California’s mountains.
Reliable and efficient electrical power are important needs for scientists tracking released birds and constantly monitoring their well-being to increase their chances of survival in the wild.
A team of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service employees recently were awarded a Federal Energy and Water Management Award from the U.S. Department of Energy for installing a solar system that now meets all of the electrical power needs at the research station. The 110-watt photovoltaic modules produce 1.76 kilowatts and replace an inefficient, unreliable and noisy gasoline-powered generator that was used in the past to provide electrical power and to pump water.
Greg Austin, deputy project leader for Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, Vivian Rice-Smuin, energy manager for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Region, and Melissa Ennis, formerly the refuge operations specialist at Hopper Mountain National Wildlife Refuge, were honored at an award ceremony in Washington, D.C., on October 29, 2003.
The team demonstrated environmental leadership by installing a solar system that will save $1,025, conserve 23,000 kilowatts and prevent 31,000 pounds of air pollutants from being produced annually.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System which encompasses 542 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces Federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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