Clean Rivers Cooperative Wildlife Response, Medford, Oregon

Clean Rivers Cooperative has consistently provided exceptional service to its membership since being founded in 1971. From membership training and support, to response activities, Clean Rivers maintains personnel, equipment and contracts to ensure that membership can rely on the Cooperative for turn key response services.

This readiness also presents the ability for the Cooperative to support the greater community in specialized requests. On the afternoon of April 13th, the Cooperative received a request from Unified Command managing a response in Medford, Oregon. The incident impacted wildlife in the area and there was a need for wildlife response services to be activated. Although outside of the Area of Interest which Clean Rivers Operates in, as well as this being a non-member response, staff followed internal protocols to brief and request approval from the Cooperative the Board of Directors, regulatory agencies and our Cooperative partners. All approvals were received promptly and staff immediately began mobilization of personnel and equipment that evening for a proper response.

Clean Rivers Cooperative General Manager, Curtis Cannizzaro arrived at the Command Post in Medford the following morning to attend the morning briefing, meet with the Incident Commander and receive an update of the incident and to coordinate a wildlife staging area for the arrival of equipment and a team of six personnel from International Bird Rescue. Concurrently, Operations Manager, Carl Boelter coordinated the dispatch of the Cooperative’s Wildlife Response System through contractors and continued to manage logistical arrangements for the deployment of assets.

Once established, Clean Rivers Cooperative worked closely with U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, EPA, and Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality. The response included the rescue a number of impacted species including Canada Geese, and a young gosling and Mallards. After weeks of response a number of rescued wildlife were transported to a fixed facility for further rehabilitation and Clean Rivers was fully demobilized from the response. We are grateful to our Board, Membership and regulatory agencies for supporting our participation in this response. Clean Rivers Cooperative will continue to maintain a constant state of readiness to ensure we can continue to support our membership and the greater community as a whole.