Please come raise a toast to the birds of CRC with award-winning
wine and gourmet fine dining at The Restaurant at King Estate on October
21st, at 6:00 pm. Celebrate with us our partnership with King
Estate, their commitment to organic agriculture, and Cascades Raptor
Center's commitment to top quality care for the injured and orphaned
raptors of our region. Good company, excellent food, beautiful
birds, fine wine ... and a great cause. Please see the menu in the
sidebar - how can you resist? Seating is limited so please
reserve your space today! We hope to see you there and thank you
in advance for your contribution towards our work.
>> Click here to register. Advance purchase required.
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 Parking Lot Make-Over!
In late August, CRC was excited and honored to receive an offer
from the Water Division of EWEB (Eugene Water & Electric Board) to
do a project for us, in honor of United Way Day of Caring, with 'big
equipment.' We had already listed a cage-building project with
United Way and had an LTD (Lane Transit District) crew signed up to help
with that. But instead of building a new enclosure, as we had
previously planned, EWEB's offer had us scrambling to dismantle, move,
and prepare to reassemble two
enclosures to make way for a greatly expanded parking lot! We
were moving plants from our butterfly garden, drawing up plans, trying
to save trees, building foundations at the new locations for the cages
we were moving, removing some trees and limbing others... all 'round, a
very busy three weeks for our incredible volunteers, on top of
everything else they regularly do.
We had a crew of 12 from EWEB's Engineering Division on the morning
of Day of Caring itself to help with the reassembly of enclosures, which
the LTD crew continued in the afternoon. EWEB's Tree-Trimming
Division also sent a crew and bucket truck to help remove the marked
trees, some large limbs, and to open up the driveway for the Water
Division's equipment and for firetrucks (now that we have turning around
room for them on-site), should we ever need them.
Our sincere thanks to EWEB and LTD for all their help; to the City
of Eugene for letting us use the Ridgeline Trail parking lot to stage
the huge concrete blocks for the retaining walls and the big equipment
and trailers. EWEB's crew and dump trucks made 14 runs to Eugene
Sand & Gravel for a total of 167 tons of big rock, plus many more to
bring in the waste concrete blocks, and small rock; and rented a roller
to compact it all in place. They were so busy and so concerned
that they wouldn't be able to finish it all in one day, that they ate
the lunch we provided and all snacks on the go - not one person took a
sit-down break all day! Watching them work was like watching a
ballet ... picking up a giant concrete block (each of which weighs 3600
pounds) on a chain, gently guiding it into place, tapping it
level, moving mounds of dirt, rock, gravel, raking them smooth,
rolling to compact it all down firmly. In the end, we have parking
for about twice as many cars - visitors, staff and volunteers - plus a
turn-out for cars passing on the driveway. What a transformation!
And a much better welcome for the many visitors we receive: over 10,000
already this year. In fact, general public admissions (not
counting school field trips) in 2011 had passed all of last year's
before the end of August, with 2200 coming in July alone.
We are also very grateful to John Etter, retired City of Eugene
Parks planner, for all his excellent advice; to Eugene Sand &
Gravel, Portable Rock Quarry, and Conveyor Truck Services for the
discounts and excellent service they provided. AND to our awesome
volunteers who made it all possible. What an amazing and generous
community we have!
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