Finish Filming Biggest Little Owl!

Leslie Epperson is organizing this fundraiser.

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My name is Leslie Ann Epperson, and I live in Tucson, Arizona. For the past two years, I have been producing a film about the endangered cactus ferruginous pygmy owl in Southern Arizona. It started as a small project, but the story grew when I discovered the long history of people fighting to protect the pygmy owl of the borderlands.

I love the Sonoran Desert, also known as "the Green Desert." It's the most biodiverse desert on the planet. However, I am concerned about the growing human presence and climate change in this already hot and arid land. During research, I discovered that Pima County, because the cactus ferruginous pygmy owl was listed as an Endangered Species, developed the award-winning Sonoran Desert Conservation Plan. The SDCP protects wildlife in a delicate balance with human development. The little saga about a little owl became a bigger story.

https://www.pima.gov/787/The-Sonoran-Desert-Conservation-Plan.

The cactus ferruginous pygmy owl lost federal protection in 2007 after developers sued. In late 2023, the raptors were again granted federal protection as a Threatened Species. The twists and turns of this human struggle of competing interests are a lot of baggage for an owl weighing two ounces to carry through our story!

I have provided a short segment that features Dr. Aaron Flesch. A conservation biologist-ecologist, Aaron has studied the pygmy owls for over 25 years. However, we have interviewed other key people, including Pima County hydrologist-ecologist Dr. Julia Fonseca, advocate and citizen scientist Christina McVie, U.S. Fish & Wildlife ecologist Scott Richardson, Dr. Tara Harris from the Phoenix Zoo Conservation Projects, Eric Murray from Wild at Heart, and others. We still need to gather more footage to complete the story and to follow Dr. Flesch on another search for pygmy owl nests.

Specifically, the funds will help us:

hire a sound recordist: $350.00 per day x 3= $1050

travel expenses, including truck rental: $400.00

media card purchases: $150.00 x 3= $450.00

Additional 10 TB hard drive: $550.00

misc expenses: $50.00

We are almost at the finish line for field production, and your help will bring us across. Thank you so much!

A film still from a captive breeding program release with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Wild at Heart Raptors, and Phoenix Zoo Wildlife Conservation Projects.