Every once in a while a person comes into my life who lights me up like a Christmas tree. Jessie McKibbin, an 18-year-old Eagle Scout from Bend, did just that when he called looking for someone to help him qualify for the Boy Scouts of America Dr. William T. Hornaday Award.

"How about a nesting box project as a means to learn the status of flying squirrels in this area," I suggested. "You bet!" Jessie responded, and we were off and running.

This Hornaday award is given in recognition to those who make significant contributions to conservation. It was begun in 1917 by Dr. William T. Hornaday, director of the New York Zoological Park and founder of the National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Dr. Hornaday was an active and outspoken champion of natural resource conservation and a leader in saving the American bison from extinction. After his death in 1938, the award was renamed in Dr. Hornaday's honor and became a Boy Scouts of America award.

I don't know the status of flying squirrels myself. I do know that small owls, kestrels, chickerees (Douglas's squirrel) and a host of other birds and mammals - including flying squirrels - use abandoned woodpecker cavities to raise young and keep out of the weather.

Logging practices and forest fires - resulting in removal of dead and dying trees that cavity-nesters must use - could have a significant negative impact on flying squirrels.

That led me to coming up with the design for a flying squirrels nesting box.

It took about five minutes to fill Jessie in on the nesting box project. One of the details Jessie shared with me about the Dr. Hornaday Award was that it had to show definite gains in several areas of conservation. In order to meet those qualifications, it meant the nesting boxes had to be monitored long after Jessie is doing other things - four years minimum.

Jessie's squirrel box project got underway with the help of donated materials, his fellow Scouts, friends and his dad, a builder. They took my rough prototype box and turned it into a beautiful tool of wildlife management. Jessie's boxes, thanks to the expert building skills of his dad, will still be in use when any children Jessie may have years from now are in college.

Caleb Anderson

Flying squirrel. graphic

If anyone is interested in donating funds for two nesting box cameras, then we will be able to sit in a group in front of a TV screen and watch what goes on inside their home without disturbing them. What a show that will be! Call me at 388-1659.