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Mountain View wants to increase funding for consultant services to monitor and protect the burrowing owl population at Shoreline Park, nearly two years after the abrupt departure of the city’s two wildlife biologists.
The City Council is expected to vote on a staff recommendation at its Tuesday meeting that would increase funding by $105,000 for additional biological services at Shoreline. The item is part of the council’s consent agenda, which is a collection of routine items meant to be approved in a single vote.
The city already has allocated $280,000 for biological services at Shoreline for the 2025-2026 fiscal year, according to the staff report. The request for the additional $105,000 would go towards consulting costs not anticipated in the original budget.
The report also describes the possibility of hiring a staff biologist later this year to fill a vacant position, in conjunction with retaining biological consulting services. The report says a recruitment plan and timeline will be shared with the City Council and community once it is developed.
The possibility of reinstating the biologist position is welcome news for local advocates who have spent years trying to boost the number of burrowing owls at Shoreline with habitat enhancement projects.
“This is backbreaking work to dig holes, planting these plants,” said Aisha Thiessen, an environmentalist who founded The Guardian Project, a volunteer group that aims to save Shoreline’s burrowing owls. “We’ve been going to the City Council. We’ve been trying to get the owls added to the endangered species list, and it’s just such a slow process to get help.”
Shoreline’s burrowing owls
In September 2024, the city hired LSA Associates, an environmental consulting firm, as the primary provider of biological services at Shoreline, after the city’s wildlife preservation coordinator was put on administrative leave in July 2024. A part-time biologist also resigned that same month.
The unexpected departure of the two biologists alarmed the Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society, a local conservation group now known as the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance. At the time, the group issued a statement highlighting the fragility of the burrowing owl population, the only owl species that nests and roosts underground. This makes them particularly susceptible to habitat loss from development and other encroachments, according to the group.
Shortly thereafter, the California Fish and Game Commission voted to put the western burrowing owl under “candidate status” for potential listing as threatened or endangered under the state’s Endangered Species Act. This has added more requirements for the city to protect the owls while their status is under review, like creating larger buffer zones around the owls and their burrows, according to the staff report.
In the absence of a full-time biologist, LSA consultants have stepped in to monitor and track the city’s burrowing owl population. The staff report describes several activities conducted by the consultants, including surveying areas for owls, evaluating projects ahead of construction and providing recommendations for habitat maintenance.
However, more biological services are needed to protect Shoreline’s burrowing owl population, according to the report. Some of these additional services include trapping and banding the owls and reviewing environmental reports to ensure compliance with state and federal laws, as well as the city’s burrowing owl preservation plan and Shoreline wildlife management plan.
A biologist also is needed during landfill system repairs, according to the report. Shoreline Park is built on a 544-acre landfill and requires regular monitoring to maintain the site and address methane leaks. When repair work or other construction is underway, a biologist needs to be on site, the report said.
‘The numbers keep dropping’
For years, local environmentalists have participated in habitat restoration projects at Shoreline, with the aim of encouraging native plantings and increasing biodiversity to make the area more inviting for vulnerable species, like burrowing owls.
The absence of dedicated biologists has been a big loss for the burrowing owl population, according to several advocates. They recounted the expertise of the wildlife preservation coordinator who kept close tabs on the owls, knowing how to protect them from predators and other forms of encroachment.
“The numbers keep dropping when it used to be increasing,” said Mountain View resident Tracy Ferea who shows up about twice a month at Shoreline to clear invasive weeds, mulch and put in new plantings.
Since 2012, the city has kept a monthly tally of the number of burrowing owls at Shoreline, except for July and August 2024 when there were no wildlife biologists on staff. The latest report is from January and it shows a dip in the number of burrowing owls observed by LSA. In January 2025, the consultants recorded 27 owls. In January 2026, they recorded 16 owls.
A Santa Clara Valley Habitat Agency survey shows a similar trend with respect to breeding pairs. In 2024, there were nine successful breeding pairs at Shoreline, resulting in 51 juveniles, according to the report. In 2025, there was one successful breeding pair, resulting in five juveniles.
“This council might preside over the loss of our owls,” Ferea said, expressing particular dismay about the declining number of breeding pairs.
For Ferea and others, the city’s proposition for an on-staff biologist to resume a more active role in protecting the owls can’t come soon enough.
“We really are about to lose them,” said Shani Kleinhaus, an environmental advocate for the Santa Clara Valley Bird Alliance.
Thank you MV Voice for this story. Watching Shoreline’s burrowing owls decline over the past couple of years has been deeply heartbreaking. Burrowing owls are such an endearing and irreplaceable part of this place. The City stepping up with funding and hopefully soon with a Staff Biologist gives me hope. I hope it leads to a full restoration of the care and stewardship the owls need to thrive at Shoreline again.
So we spend $250,000 last year on a single breeding owl. And we are going to add another $100k to the annual cost.
And we’ve been spending a quarter of a million for a decade and losing the battle.
Amazing job City Council.
The collapse in the owl population after the loss of the staff biologists without adequate mediation of the program would make a cynical person think that city staff wanted the owls gone for convenience.
The new staff biologist should have been hired months ago. The consultants are clearly not doing what is necessary for improving the population of burrowing owls.
I am happy to see that the staff biologist will hopefully be reinstated.
People know the “staff biologist” was Phil Higgins – why doesn’t the article state that? So strange the way he just disappeared and complete lack of an explanation.
A park as large as Shoreline needs a full-time permanent biologist. Why has one not been hired? Mt. View council has no problem handing out development permits and capitulating to google, but can’t manage to agree to hiring a critical resource for the 500+ acre park? WTH?