Near extinction Burrowing Owls are being protected

They're called the 'ambassadors of the prairies'..and they're on the verge of extinction. A new conservation project is doing what it can to help the Burrowing Owl. But as Samantha Birch reports, it may not be enough to save this uniquely Saskatchewan species.

"Look at this! it's from a young one," says 11-year old Laura Warren holds in her hand a feather of a dying breed.

The migratory burrowing owl, once a symbol of the praries, has become a casualty of the times.

Burrowing Owls could once be found from British Columbia to Manitoba. They nest in pastures, and use the grassland to raise their young. Now only a few hundred pairs of them remain, and most of those are in Saskatchewan.

The main reason is farming and farm chemicals have destroyed the owl habitat and the food they live on. Scientist Ray Poulin has spent the past six years studying the Burrowing Owl.

"Ten to 15 years ago we probably had 1500 to 2000 nests in Saskatchewan," says Poulin, "This year it's only 200 to 400 nests. So we've lost about 90% of the population and it doesn't take a mathematician to figure out where this population is heading."

"There's a couple here and a couple over there" says farmer Irvine Warren.

Irvine Warren's farm is one of the few 'safe' nesting areas remaining for the owl. He's preserved 81 hectares of his land untouched.

"If anyone else had bought it, it would have been brought up, says Warren, "...but I wanted it for pasture and there's room for the owls"

There is room for them, thanks to Operation Burrowing Owl. Conservationists and experts are turning to land owners to preserve their land. Kim Dohms coordinates the program for this unmistakable bird.

"The Burrowing Owl looks like a Mr. Potato Head on sticks. It's easily identifiable when it's sitting on a post," says Dohms.

More than 6000 hectares of Canadian grassland is protected under the program, but none of the experts think that's enough.

"Here we have a symbol of the praries, an example of how Canadians can live with wildlife," says Poulin, "...and if we can't live with the owls, what does that say about us and where we're headed?"

"I guess I would like to leave this world thinking that I helped sustain nature, and with my grandkids here I want them to learn the value of nature," says Warren.

For Warren, protecting the burrowing owl is as much about the future as it is the past.

"You got to do things like this to help them out," Warren tells his grand-children.

This land and specially designed man-made nests are the last chance for the burrowing owl in the prairies. Scientists predict that the breed could be extinct within a decade.

by Samantha Birch for CBC News in Rouleau