The call of the wild ain’t cheap

VIC LEIPZIG AND LOU MURRAY

After a dreary winter of one storm after another, sunny blue skies

finally returned to Huntington Beach this past weekend.

Vic and I could have stayed home and enjoyed the first warm

weekend in ages. But you know us better than that. We’re perverse.

We chased the disappearing storm into the mountains to catch what

might be the last drops of winter rain and falling snow.

The weekend weather in Big Bear was perfect for a romantic getaway

-- cold, wet, and miserable. On the drive up, snow squalls hit us on

Onyx Summit. The temperature rose to just above freezing as we

dropped down into Big Bear City, where we were splashed with a light,

cold rain. Weather like this encouraged us to stay indoors at the

Black Forest Lodge in front of the cozy fireplace in our room.

The next morning, fluffy white clouds scudded across blue skies,

and outdoor adventure beckoned.

Our first stop was the Moonridge Animal Park and Wildlife Care

Center, a charming little zoo in Big Bear.

The Moonridge Zoo focuses on rehabilitating injured mountain

wildlife for release. It differs from the Wetlands and Wildlife Care

Center in Huntington Beach in that it permanently houses those

animals that cannot be released. The Moonridge Zoo has more than 80

species, ranging from small animals -- such as gray squirrels, skunks

and raccoons -- to larger animals like wood bison, bobcats, a snow

leopard and a grizzly. With an elderly 19-year-old mountain lion, a

three-legged black bear and a bald eagle with cataracts, this was one

of the most interesting small zoos we’ve ever seen. You can read the

intriguing stories of the various rescued animals at

www.moonridgezoo.org.

We arrived at feeding time and got terrific looks at golden eagles

and red-tailed hawks tearing apart ... oh, you don’t want to know

what they were eating. Suffice it to say that the zookeepers had

draped limp little carcasses enticingly over the logs in the raptor

enclosures and we were mere inches away from the action.

The zoo is located across the street from a ski area. During our

one-hour visit, ambulances made three trips up the hill. (Why people

want to strap boards to their feet and hurtle headlong down slippery,

snow-covered slopes is beyond our understanding.) Every time a siren

wailed, a pack of timber wolves sang a chorus of blood-curdling

howls. There is nothing like the baying of a wolf on a frosty winter

day to bristle the hairs on the back of your neck.

This educational nonprofit organization is doing good work, but is

in crisis. The lease on their property will be up in 2009. They plan

to move from their cramped quarters in a residential neighborhood

into a spacious 50-acre facility to be built next to the United

States Forest Service’s Big Bear Discovery Center on the other side

of the lake. The planned facility would be an alpine zoological and

botanical garden, and would interpret historical changes in the Big

Bear area as well. It would continue to carry out the mission of

rehabilitation of injured wildlife, plus provide homes for

nonreleasable wildlife.

The only hitch is that the Friends of the Moonridge Zoo have to

raise between $6-12 million dollars to implement the move.

After our visit to the zoo, Vic and I decided to drive to the

north side of Big Bear Lake to see the Big Bear Discovery Center.

Good things were happening there as they prepare to expand. I had a

great time talking to Herb Drury, one of the docents, who gave me

some tips on creating plant interpretive displays for Shipley Nature

Center.

Drury pointed out a wintering bald eagle sitting in a bare tree on

the far side of the lake. Vic spotted a second one.

As we were leaving the Discovery Center, someone called out to

Vic. We turned around and were pleased to see Councilwoman Debbie

Cook. She was in Big Bear to visit her son, Jonathon Cook-Fisher, a

naturalist at the Discovery Center. We also met his wife, Michelle,

an archeologist.

Jonathon pointed with pride to the new amphitheater, a spacious

facility with concrete ramps and an elevated platform large enough to

accommodate blues bands for weekend events, as well as talks by park

naturalists. The amphitheater was terrific, but there were other

expansion projects not yet funded. Jonathon sang a common lament:

wonderful plans, but not enough funding to implement them.

We see a similar situation here in Huntington Beach with the

Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, the Shipley Nature Center and the

Bolsa Chica Conservancy’s Interpretive Center. Everyone seems to

think that someone else should pay.

Need money for a nature center or a wildlife care center? Ask the

government to fund it. But despite our high taxes, it seems the

government is always broke.

So ask a private philanthropic foundation to help out.

Unfortunately, there are more organizations in need than there are

foundation dollars. Everyday folks often must provide the funding to

make these worthy environmental projects happen.

Unless the public demands that more of their local, state and

federal tax dollars go to environmental projects, it will continue to

fall on altruistic individuals to fund them. Unfortunately, there

will never be enough of those private dollars to accomplish the many

things that need to get done as people continue to impact the natural

world.

* VIC LEIPZIG and LOU MURRAY are Huntington Beach residents and

environmentalists. They can be reached at [email protected].