In October 2000 Rocky Mountain Power donated 22 acres of majestic Canyon
property in Cedar City to the Southwest Wildlife Foundation of Utah
Step-by-step with the assistance of countless local businesses and
volunteers we have been working to create the Cedar Canyon nature park into
a permanent wildlife rescue facility and Nature Park
The reason for the flight chamber here at the Cedar Canyon Nature Park is we
rescue an awful lot of eagles both Golden Eagles and Bald Eagles they come
in every year and right now my largest chamber that I have is ten feet wide 12
feet tall and 40 feet long that's fine for housing them they get to move around
a little bit and then I have to use falconry techniques to get them
exercised for release. We really desperately need a chamber that is 50
feet wide a hundred feet long and about 20 feet tall, to give the Eagles enough
room that they could actually fly and circle within the chamber to build up
their wing strength and exercise before their release back to the wild
Here's the concept. Any place that that grows, especially
alfalfa, we have hay barns. Now hay barns are basically nothing but a roof
supported by some metal pillars and a span of roof and they put the hay under
the roof to keep it out of the weather there are no sides to these hay barns.
We have lots of them here in Utah, they're quite common. Now what I would do with an
Eagle flight chamber is I would start off with the completely open with just a
metal roof type structure that is clean and smooth and there's no sharp
edges and there's nothing animals can get hurt on, and then we would purchase
about four of these cargo containers, shipping containers, that you see it
around the people use for storage they you know they put them on on cargo ships
and ship them across around the world. You get four of those cargo containers
which would give us 80 feet long, and we would butt them up, two on one side of
the hay barn, two on the other side of the hay barn type structure, and then from
there we would then take what they call thin wall tubing, metal tubing, and weld
the thin wall tubing going up vertically so we have bars... so the first half is a
solid wall with the cargo containers and those would be converted into
bird-of-prey rehab sheds or carry for the birds in smaller chambers, all the
way around which would be the the flight chamber and then barring all the way
around the top half of the flight chamber so that there'd be lots of
ventilation the birds could see out and those kinds of things. And then basically
put a center wall in the 50 foot wide facility that would leave about 20 feet
on each end and so we would kind of turn that into the birds could fly a hundred
feet turn fly 50 feet turn fly a hundred feet turn and circle inside this
container to get there exercise that's a big enough facility that the birds could
could actually circle and circle to build up their strength and endurance
and then inside the center section we would then put in a little observation
area where the birds couldn't see the public but the public could see out and
see that see the animals exercising inside the chamber. So it's a big big
facility but again it would be a world-class
facility that these animals could get their exercise and like I said not just
Eagles but large hawks and owls and falcons could exercise in a facility like that.
And the great thing is this particular location here in Southern
Utah is very centrally located which would allow us to receive other eagles
that have been rescued from other rehabilitators and place them into our
flight chamber I could certainly see Eagles coming from all over the United
States to get exercised in the flight chamber and not only could we do Eagles
in the flight chamber but the California Condor which you know is been relocated here to Southern Utah.
The goal of flight chamber, yes, is to care for the animals
but secondly again it's an educational facility.
The mission of the Southwest Wildlife Foundation of Utah is threefold
We believe the Eagle flight chamber is a vital as well as monumental next
step in fulfilling our mission. As the first major structure for wildlife at
the park it must also accommodate the following needs:
Work area for rehabbers and other staff.
Wildlife food storage and food preparation areas.
Reception and viewing areas for VIP visitors.
Quarters for visiting student interns, academics, or researchers.
Quarters for 24/7 on-site caretakers.
The community is so excited about what we're trying to do and again in
small-town Utah, raising the funds is very difficult. We have to be able to
reach out well beyond Cedar City and southern Utah out into the rest of the
country to say please help us. This is something that your children your
grandchildren, your great-grandchildren, will be able to come to this amazing
park, and wouldn't it be wonderful to be able to say that you had a small piece
in the development of the Cedar Canyon Nature Park?
And so we would love everyone to roll the sleeves give us a hand
and we'll make this Park a world-class facility for everybody