The Friends of Malheur National Wildlife Refuge are honored to dedicate this new osprey nest platform and associated nest camera in the names of Cal and Alice Elshoff whose legacy of service to conservation and wildlife is an inspiration.
This is the story of a property at the southern end of Malheur Refuge, a former cattle ranch that now belongs to the Refuge, which from 1997 to 2008 was the full-time residence of Alice and Cal Elshoff.
“First off, we did not buy the ranch and donate to the Refuge,” said Alice. “This is how it was: In the 1960’s Cal [who passed away in March 2021] and I had been going to Malheur Refuge to volunteer through a birding group based in Bend. Malheur Refuge was very familiar to this group. We asked Gary Ivey [then a Refuge biologist at Malheur] whether there were nearby areas of land to buy that we could camp on, with the eventual plan of donating it to the Refuge.
Gary called one day and said there was a ranch near the Refuge that was for sale. The rancher wished to sell it to the government, but he wanted more than the appraised price, which the government wouldn’t pay. We got a group of interested people, pooled our resources, and eventually loaned the Refuge the amount above the appraised price to purchase the land.
This apparently had never been done before within the Refuge system, so the process took more than two years. There was a house on the property that the Refuge did not want to maintain. Cal and I said that we would be happy to live at the house, maintain it, and serve as volunteers.
We lived there year-round for 11 years, from 1997 to 2008. It was paradise. Eleven of the best years of our lives.
We helped Refuge staff remove legacy barbed wire, miles and miles of it. Cal, with his background in wildlife biology, helped with bird-tagging. Whatever they asked us to, we did it, and were delighted to do it.
Friends would ask, ‘Didn’t you get lonely?’ We said no, we had lots of friends that loved to come out and go birding with us, and help with the volunteering.
The three things I loved most about our time there: Nice skies. Stillness. And interactions with wildlife.
When I heard that Friends of Malheur Refuge wanted to dedicate the new osprey nesting platform to Cal and I, I was honored. And of course I agreed. Cal would’ve loved that. He was such a birder.”
The construction and installation of the platform, in addition to the purchase and initial support for the camera operation are thanks to a single anonymous donor.
YOU can sponsor the Nest Camera! A donation of $179 covers one month of streaming and support services.
DONATE HERE to support the camera!
