What is The Peregrine Fund?
According to its own publications, TPF was formed in 1970, when Tom Cade, a professor of ornithology at Cornell University, decided something needed to be done to save the peregrine falcon from extinction. Five years later, TPF was formally established in Pennsylvania as a non-profit corporation.
Today, the fund has its headquarters in Boise, Idaho. In its annual report for 1994, its president, William Burnham, claims that TPF has bred in captivity about 4,500 raptors of 25 different species, including falcons, and has released 4,000 peregrines falcons in 28 states. It is “cooperating in restoration of a viable population of over 300 kestrels from only two known pairs” and is “accomplishing” restoration of the aplomado falcon in its former range in the United States and Mexico.
Regarding its work in Hawai`i, Burnham notes that TPF accomplished the first releases of `alala young into the wild, “almost doubling the wild population.” It also is “building a breeding facility and cooperative conservation programs for America’s rarest songbirds.”
The Peregrine Fund has a board of more than 30 directors that includes members of the Disney family, an executive with the Atlantic Richfield oil company, the chairman of Ore-Ida Foods, and the vice chairman and chief operating officer of Goldman, Sachs & Co., the investment firm in which Bishop Estate holds a large stake. In 1995, Bishop Estate trustee Oswald Stender joined the board.
According to a database maintained by American Business Information, Inc., The Peregrine Fund had 31 employees in 1994, and income that year totaled $1,069,000.
The Hawai`i Chapter
Robert Smith of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service invited The Peregrine Fund to Hawai`i in 1993 to help collect and hatch eggs from nests of the wild `alala flock. “We did a search, and The Peregrine Fund was the only entity that surfaced,” he told Environment Hawai`i.
With the assistance of the Fish and Wildlife Service, TPF oversaw the incubation of eggs and the release of five chicks to the wild in 1993 and seven in 1994 (including four produced by birds at Olinda). For its work in the 1993 fiscal year, TPF was paid $382,000 by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Since then, it has received $500,000 a year for its work in Hawai`i, under the contract with the FWS.
In 1994, The Peregrine Fund began working with the Fish and Wildlife Service on plans to carry out one of the recommendations made by the committee of the National Research Council formed to look into the scientific bases for preservation of the `alala. That recommendation advised setting up a second captive propagation center on an island other than Maui. That way, should catastrophe strike the captive flock at one center — rampant disease, for example, or natural disaster — it would not mean the end of the line for captive propagation of the species.
According to the environmental assessment prepared for the facility, Congress appropriated funds for this purpose to the Fish and Wildlife Service. “The Service has chosen to modify an existing Cooperative Agreement with the Peregrine Fund, Inc., in order to accomplish this directive,” the EA states. “The Peregrine Fund, Inc., in collaboration and partnership with the Service, proposes to design, build and operate a captive propagation facility, in the Ka`u district on the Big Island of Hawai`i, for a minimum contractual period of 20 years.” The site eventually chosen is near the village of Volcano on land that is part of the Keauhou Ranch, owned by Bishop Estate.
Funds allocated by Congress for the facility came to $1.5 million in 1995. In a report entitled “Keauhou Bird Conservation: A Program of The Peregrine Fund,” The Peregrine Fund says that the initial appropriation will pay for construction of the first phase, which began last fall. Construction of the second phase (including the veterinary clinic) is expected to cost $1 million — and again, the federal government is expected to pick up the tab. Phases 3 and 4, according to that same document, “will evolve as the biological needs of particular species and the level of effort required are better understood.”
Despite the heavy involvement of federal money, The Peregrine Fund rarely makes mention of this angle in press releases that refer to the facility. A press release issued January 23, 1996, for example, states that “construction is underway on a $4.0 million facility on the Big Island for several of Hawai`i’s most endangered birds. Land for the facility has been provided by Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate.”
The license between Bishop Estate and TPF is for 35 years, with an option for a 15-year renewal. According to Alan Lieberman, TPF’s director of operations in Hawai`i, the fund pays “a nominal fee” for use of the land. How nominal? “A little less than if we were grazing the land,” Lieberman responded.
Funds for the rent are paid by the federal government. “About everything we do, a major portion is paid for by the federal government,” Lieberman said.
What happens to the facility at the end of the license term? “Either we renegotiate the license, or the land has to be restored to its original condition — or, at the request of Bishop Estate, the buildings will stay and revert to Bishop.”
Smith, of the Fish and Wildlife Service, said that federal requirements concerning land tenure are satisfied if the term of the lease is at least as long as the expected amortized life of the facility. That requirement was met in this case, he said.
The Bottom Line
The Peregrine Fund is, by all accounts, very oriented to achieving results. In the “Keauhou Bird Conservation Center” report, there is this description of the fund’s approach: “Keep it simple. Remain positive. Maintain excellence in all we do. Hire, train, and keep the best people. Work as a team because we mean it. Work cooperatively. Maintain focus. Make a difference. Make friends lifelong conservation partners. Achieve results.”
Accentuating the “positive” has resulted in TPF staff taking some positions that have bewildered many experts in the conservation field in Hawai`i. For example, at a recent meeting of the `alala recovery team, owners of Kaimalino Ranch in South Kona — an area that had been the Number 1 national priority for acquisition of the Fish and Wildlife Service because of its value as prime `alala habitat — announced their intention to begin harvesting koa from the property. TPF staffer Peter Harrity stunned most of the scientists present when he spoke up in favor of the idea.
Lieberman could not verify reports of Harrity’s remarks, but, in an interview with Environment Hawai`i, he said TPF had taken no position on the subject. “We try to stay apolitical,” he said.
Volume 6, Number 9 March 1996
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