During sweltering heat this past June, two Salt River Project field employees were tending to business at an SRP facility adjacent to the Palo Verde Nuclear Generating Station west of Phoenix. They noticed that within a fenced “no man’s land” a young bird was struggling on the ground, needing help.

Jacob Petersen, one of the SRP workers, described the no man’s land as an area that receives some intense security.

“If you go in there you could get shot,” he said.

Petersen and his partner, Jeff Lewis, both received some training from an SRP Avian Protection program. They contacted Liberty Wildlife, the wildlife rehabilitation service that works with SRP, as well as plant security to see if they could get access to the bird.

Security was accommodating, but both Liberty Wildlife and SRP environmental personnel had a delayed response to the somewhat remote desert area between Phoenix and the California state line.

Not wanting to leave the young bird in the blistering heat, Petersen and Lewis collected the scared creature into a container and moved it inside to a cooler location until it could be picked up.

Lesly Swanson with SRP’s Environmental and Cultural Resources department said the company is acutely aware of its responsibility in maintaining and helping wildlife and cultural resources affected by its widespread facilities in its service area.

“We have a lot of internal training for our people in the field,” Swanson said.

While a lot of their wildlife encounters are birds, they also run into their share of snakes and the occasional javelina that need to be cleared away before work can begin on a project.

Swanson said her department might receive up to a half dozen calls during a week related to birds that employees encounter within a substation or other facilities. It is not unusual for hawks to nest in the towers supporting high tension lines.

In fact, the young red-tailed hawk found by Peterson and Lewis likely climbed out of its nest in a tower near the substation. It was not ready to fly from the nest but was able to glide to the ground uninjured. Still, it could not fly from the ground.

After nearly four months with the Liberty Wildlife rehabilitation center the young red-tail was finally ready to be turned lose in the wild. In October, Petersen and Lewis were told the bird was ready to be set free and they were invited to participate.

SRP and Liberty had three birds ready for release at the same time; two red-tailed hawks and a peregrine falcon. The falcon was released near Roosevelt Dam with good fishing and high cliffs nearby.

The next day it was the red-tails’ turn. They were released along the lower Salt River at the Phon D Sutton Recreation Area just above Granite Reef Dam. The point was right at the confluence with the Verde River flowing in from the north.

Petersen and Lewis were waiting when Swanson and Nina Grimaldi, an SRP liaison with Liberty Wildlife, arrived with two cardboard containers with the birds huddled inside.

Petersen and Lewis each opened one of the boxes and the eager birds flew out low over the river, twisting and turning until they caught the wind just right to lift them into some nearby trees along the riverbank.

Swanson said the public is also welcome to contact SRP if they see wildlife in distress on SRP property or at a facility such as a substation. The number is 602-236-BIRD (2473).