MEDFORD, Ore. (AP) – A plan to reintroduce the California condor to the Redwood National Forest could mean the giant raptors will eventually repopulate Oregon’s Rogue Valley as well.
The Mail Tribune reports Friday that Northern California’s Yurok Tribe, the National Park Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service issued a detailed plan for the reintroduction in a recent environmental impact report.
The reintroduction in Redwood National Forest could lead to the birds also returning to southern Oregon — also part of the raptor’s historic range. The last condor sighting in Oregon was near the town of Drain in 1904.
The Oregon Zoo in Portland would hatch the condor chicks and they could be in the air over the Klamath River next year.
Condors have been re-established in Arizona, Southern California and Mexico.