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News Wildlife
Crisis About AWRA |
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We now have
a province-wide, toll free, Wildlife Help Line.
Alberta Wildlife Rehabilitators Conference 2007.doc Download MS Word
On Wednesday, August 5, 2005 a CN train derailed spilling oil into Lake Wabamum. Here is part one of the story of how one of our rehabbers, Kim Allan, from Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton, responded to the call to help save hundreds of animals. Reflections
on the Oil Spill at Wabamum Lake One of the projects I had undertaken as a director for the AWRA was to develop a proposal for an emergency response plan. Our idea was to have in place a plan of action, linking our organization with various government departments to assist wildlife in the event of a major crisis. Earlier in the year, I had contacted Lana Emo from Focus Wildlife – a non-profit contingency planning group that has traveled all over the world assisting government and non-governmental organizations to deal with large numbers of wildlife patients usually related to an oil spill. We had e-mailed each other several times and were hoping to eventually meet at some point perhaps at the Oil Spill Conference in St. John’s, NFLD this summer. Little did I imagine that our emergency response plan was about to write itself. On Wednesday, August 5, 2005, several CN Rail cars went off track spilling their contents into Wabamum Lake – 1.3 million litres of Bunker C crude oil as well as pole preservative. Wabamum Lake is 65 km west of Edmonton and one of the larger recreational lakes in the area. Summer is short and this lake is popular for boating activities, sailing courses as well as year-round and seasonal resort living. Trans Alta Utilities has a huge plant at one end of the lake. The discharge water from this plant keeps the temperature of the water warm enough that parts of the lake are open year round. The lake supports nesting colonies of Western Grebes as well as Red-necked Grebes, Common Loons, and most other waterfowl. Osprey cruise the lake daily and several nest platforms are visible. A call for help came on Wednesday evening from the district biologist out of the Spruce Grove/Stony Plain office, Hugh Wollis. Could Wildlife Rehabilitation Society of Edmonton (WRSE) help? I quickly agreed that we would be on site but we would clearly need help if more than a few birds were affected. I suggested we contact an oiled wildlife response team to assist and he passed this information on to the CN Environmental Team. On Thursday morning, Julie and I left the shelter after quickly finishing morning rounds to go out and “assess the situation” and set up a triage station at the Wabamum area. From that point on, the next few weeks were a blur. It is hard to describe our feelings on seeing these birds covered in oil. We’ve see it on TV but to experience it first hand is heart-breaking. Even today, it is hard to think about it. The first birds coming in were Red-necked grebes, then a few ducks which were difficult to identify, then Western Grebes. Later, there were Common Loons, Canada Geese, California Gulls, Common Terns, Common Mergansers, Muskrats and even a couple of garter snakes. There was no visible coloring on most of the birds. We learned to identify by the bill shape and size and the bright red eyes of the Western Grebes. There were adults, juveniles and even some nestlings. The stress and fear in their eyes is unforgettable. Some could not open their wings – they were stuck to their bodies. They would roll over on their backs and not be able to right themselves. We had to put them in cardboard boxes, one bird per box, as they would fight with each other in the boxes under such extreme conditions. We quickly ran out of carriers. The first day over 30 live birds came in. By the third day, we had over 100 and at the peak, we had close to 300 birds in care. WRSE’s role was to intake, exam, triage and begin rehydration, house the birds in a warm area and continue rehydration and feeding. We then needed to come up with an effective system to wash, clean and dry the birds after stabilization. People were everywhere trying to help. The local residents descended on the Wabamun area with offers of materials, goods and man power. People were wading into the oil covered lake to catch birds and bring them in. Some of the birds were already dead or dying. We had little in the way of protective equipment, only rubber gloves and some safety glasses. People were anxious to start washing and some had already washed birds at their homes. We had only one hose connected to the hot/cold water taps and it was impossible to keep the water temperature constant. As well, where would we put the birds after the washing was finished? We only had one room that was jerry rigged with heat lamps – it wasn’t big enough and was becoming a safety hazard due to the number of birds and people that had to move around in there. If we tried plugging in more heat lamps or heaters, the fuses in the building would blow. The media was present from every TV and radio station and newspaper in Edmonton and beyond wanting updates and information on the condition of the birds and government officials from municipal, provincial and federal departments were everywhere. CN brought in their emergency response people and were dealing with not only the wildlife situation but the clean up at the lake and the spill site and trying to get their trains moving again. We were all anxious for the birds and the conditions in which we had to house them as well as the facility short comings that were frustrating our attempts at improving their situation. CN had contacted an oiled wildlife response team but unfortunately, the Oiled Wildlife Conference in St Johns had stated the day of the oil spill at Wabamun! The soonest the team could get out was Friday evening – three days after the spill. What a terrible situation for them to come to three days after a spill and start “day one” of an emergency response. A three person team from Focus Wildlife arrived late on Friday evening and quickly got to work. Chris Battagalia was the facilities expert. He realized almost immediately that the arena was not going to be able to meet our needs, specifically washing the birds and keeping them warm. Coleen’s expertise was in animal care, specifically oiled birds and how to get them and keep them stabilized before, during and after the cleaning process. Her immediate goals were to set up a tubing schedule and get those birds out of boxes! Lana’s expertise was (among many other duties) to build and maintain rapport with all the various agencies and organizations (government and non-government) in this extremely stressful situation as well as organize what our peoples needs would be. By Sunday (day five) we would begin moving all the birds to a new location in Spruce Grove which would meet the water demands we needed for the cleaning process. End of Part One Reflections on the Oil Spill at Wabamum
Lake (Part Two) The birds were transported in small animal carriers, cardboard pet caddies and other cardboard boxes fitted with pieces of bird netting over the top for ventilation. A large panel truck made two trips from Wabamun to Spruce Grove about 30 km east of the oil spill site. I hopped into the back of the truck and rode with the birds on the second trip and can vouch for the driver, he took great care avoiding sharp turns and sudden stops – those boxes barely moved during transport. All was not quiet though as frequent calling and vocalizations expressed the bird’s fear and stress during what must have seemed like an endless nightmare. The Spruce Grove Recovery Centre was infinitely better for a variety of reasons. It had a large bay area used for washing boats. It had the space needed to house, wash, dry, keep warm and feed whatever number of birds might come in. Building projects were already underway – large plywood bins were being built (by a volunteer contingent whose sailing lessons had been cancelled due to the spill) with net bottoms to support the top heavy grebes and protect their delicate keels and feet from damage caused by pressure. Grebes are designed by nature for a totally aquatic life. Their powerful legs and feet are “set back” in the pelvis and are perfect for diving and swimming – but not for walking or sitting on dry land. This was to be an on-going concern for their health throughout their entire time in captivity and indeed was one of the limiting factors in their potential release. As soon as a bin was built, it was occupied. We quickly found that certain birds would house together and certain would not so we were constantly vigilant for individuals that were spearing each other. Dividers were built for the bins which would allow each bin to hold a minimum of four to up to twelve birds. The bins would make the tube feeding schedule (eight times per day!) easier to implement as it would be much quicker to get the birds in and out. The goal at this point was to get the birds out of the cardboard boxes and onto a regular feeding regime. We had the shell of a warehouse and it transformed into: a public entry for volunteers with a “greeter” and sign-in sheets; a volunteer information area and eating area; a storage area for the ever-increasing amount of goods that were being purchased or donated; a huge “hot-zone” where the birds were housed, fed and stabilized (with a separate area for in-take and medical procedures as well as a separate washing station and drying area; a construction area; a lab area for processing blood work; a storage area for medical supplies; an office/work station for the Focus Wildlife crew and a kitchen/food prep room. In the ‘hot zones”, anyone who entered would don Tyvek coveralls, nitrile gloves, masks and safety glasses. Once in the “hot zone” you could not go in and out at will without either shedding or donning the safety gear. It was also called the hot zone because it was extremely hot in those areas. Oiled birds cannot thermoregulate so the ambient temperature had to be hot. Working in those areas meant a lot of sweating and keeping ourselves hydrated was an on-going challenge. In the washing area, on-demand hot water systems were installed with tubing and hoses running to a large washing station where three to four pairs of people could wash birds. The rinse area had warm (104 degree) water running constantly. As well, outside in the parking lot, eight huge outdoor above-ground pools were being set up and modified to contain and skim massive amounts of water; several trailers were brought in for bird housing and one large freezer trailer for frozen fish storage; a separate waterfowl pen was built to house the ducks and geese (puddle jumpers who couldn’t go into the other pools!). The fire station was just beside the building so hoses were connected to the big fire hydrants to ensure a steady supply of clean water. All of this had to be set up before we could even begin to start washing any birds. This took almost a week which is amazing considering the amount of work being done. A volunteer co-ordinator was hired to handle the huge volume of offers to help and organize a steady contingent of volunteers. In the hot zone, each feeding session required ten to fifteen people. Many of the volunteers had never handled a bird before much less be involved this intensively in critical care. People who had just learned how to tube feed a bird were within the same day, teaching other people how to do it. It was a dire situation with so much to be done in such a short space of time. Every delay meant the birds would become weaker and less able to handle the next phase – the washing process. People were being trained by the Focus Wildlife team to thoroughly wash and rinse each and every bird that had a chance of recovery. Each bird took 45 minutes to an hour or more to clean and rinse, then into the drying bins where they were continually monitored for signs of overheating. After they were dry, they would go to the outside trailers and tested in the outdoor pools to see if they were waterproof. This is a critical step. Haul-outs were built and attached to the sides of the pool. If a grebe hauled itself out of the water, there was a problem. The birds were continually monitored throughout their time in the pools and were finally able to eat something they recognized – fish! What a overwhelming sight to see these beautiful birds – once horridly covered in oil, now beautiful and clean again, swimming, preening, diving and eating fish. Over 1000 birds were recovered off the lake. 453 came in alive and of those, 101 were released. When you think about what they went through, it’s amazing any survived at all. Lake monitoring and hazing (methods of scaring birds off certain parts of the lake) went on until the end of October - a full three months after the spill. Epilogue:
Although no official word has been heard, CN apparently has packed
up all of the equipment into train trailers that can be brought
to the scene of another spill if needed. The potential for this
to happen anywhere in Canada where the tracks run along a water
body is high. This was an extremely expensive incident for CN not
only in terms of wildlife recovery but lake recovery. Many people
were affected by this incident and it is not over yet. The lake
is frozen now with the exception of one part kept open by the warm
discharge water of the Trans Alta plant. Oil has fallen to the bottom
of the lake and may very well reappear in the spring. Wildlife Helpline for Alberta, Canada only We
now have a province-wide, toll free, Wildlife Help Line.
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