Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/856465
In those pre-smartphone days, Sorenson would collect maps from AAA offices, navigate to the next major mountaintop, and search for birds with an antenna. "Those eagles were so fast. I'd race to the next mountain peak, and they'd be north of me every time," he laughs. This year, as the Salinas- and Big Sur-based Ventana Wildlife Society (VWS) marks 40 years of species recovery, habit conservation and educa- tional outreach, a peer-reviewed paper in the June Journal of Raptor Research detailed the successful rehabilitation of central California's bald eagles. Sorenson, now VWS executive director, was the report's lead author. "Back then, we were just a seasonal operation with one little pickup truck," says Sorenson, who joined the organization 14 years after co- founders Sal and Ada Lucido, Gerry Petkus and Don Petkus launched the nonprofit with a wilderness sanctuary in Big Sur. "We went at it with everything we could, as we tried to get this species back on its feet in northern California." Monterey Bay Aquarium Veterinary Services Director Dr. Mike Murray assisted with VWS bald eagle recovery efforts in the 1980s, when he was a private-practice veterinarian on the Monterey Peninsula. "When they started, there were naysayers at every turn. But this pri- vate, grassroots organization had big ideas—and they've pulled it off," Murray says. "They have a great deal of passion and compassion for the animals they help, not only as whole species, but also as individuals." Following the successful bald eagle campaign, VWS leaders turned to threatened California condors. For generations, the birds were poisoned as they fed on the remains of animals hunted with lead bullets. To combat 272 C A R M E L M A G A Z I N E • S U M M E R / F A L L 2 0 1 7 California condors perch on a cliff in Big Sur. The birds were driven to extinction but through careful breeding, have been reintroduced into the wild. The Ventana Wildlife Society has spent 40 years on species recovery.