Squirrel Nests Potentially Disturbed By New Building Construction
By: Emma Wilson and Andres Felix Romero
A little after 4 p.m. on Aug. 30, Harper Lacey, a California Polytechnic Humboldt Graduate Student, walked out of their wildlife lab ready to ride home on their bike. Nearby the trees along the fence of the new construction site for the Engineering and Technology building, at the corner of 17th and B street, Lacey noticed a worried staff member had discovered an injured baby Douglas squirrel (Tamiasciurus douglasii). Lacey acted quickly to find and provide aid to the squirrel.
“I was on the phone with the [Humboldt] Wildlife [Care] Center (HWCC),” Lacey said. “I asked, ‘Hey, do you guys take baby squirrels? I currently have one. It looks like its nose is bleeding.’ [The HWCC said], ‘We take squirrels, can you drive it to us right now?’”
Acting quickly, Lacey wrapped the squirrel in a shirt and held it in the sun to warm up. Lacey was able to flag down a student they had never met and convinced the student to help drive Lacey to the HWCC in Manila. There, Lacey found out that this wasn’t the first baby squirrel to be found near the construction site.
The day before, on Aug. 29, senior wildlife student Amelia Hilburn rescued a baby squirrel found near Lacey’s squirrel. Luckily, Hilburn is a volunteer at the Wildlife Center, and knew how to act, but was still worried about the infant’s chance at rehabilitation — a wild animal being able to return to their habitat and live on their own.
“[The baby Douglas Squirrel’s] eyes were closed, meaning it was still receiving mom’s milk,” Hilburn said. “If you do have a baby animal, it’s harder to rehab them. What they need is their mom [and habitat], but with construction going on and how loud it is, it’s almost impossible to reunite them.”
Some trees surrounding the construction site of the upcoming Engineering and Technology building were cut down. Although the trees where the squirrels were nesting weren’t cut, there are still concerns that the activity nearby is disturbing the wildlife.
Lacey was able to follow up with the HWCC the week after they found the squirrel, and found that it was making a good recovery, and it had just opened its eyes. Hilburn shared tips on what to do if wildlife is found and in need of aid before bringing the animal to the HWCC.
“First assess to see if parents are nearby,” Hilburn said. “If [they aren’t], put the critter in a box. Don’t make it too big or too small. Put in a blanket or heating pad so [the critter] doesn’t lose heat. Do not feed or water the animal, they are way too stressed to even begin to think of eating. Make sure the [box] lid is closed so they can’t escape and are less disturbed by visual stimuli, but provide air in the box.”
Other Impacts of Construction
Students had some surprises when they returned to the campus for the Fall 2024 semester. By that point, construction and groundbreaking were underway. One of the results of the construction was the removal of several trees alongside the roads of Wildlife Way and 17th Street.
Several exotic trees, some dead redwoods, and a live redwood were removed. As of writing this article, two exotic trees remain. One, from New Zealand, will stay. The other will be transplanted.
Staff parking and several street parking spots are temporarily unavailable, and through access for vehicles on 17th Street is also temporarily unavailable.
Campus’ measures to examine environmental impact
Before breaking ground, the Cal Poly Humboldt campus worked with the environmental consulting agency Ascent to fulfill California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) requirements for the construction of the Engineering and Technology building.
The addendum prepared indicates that Ascent and the campus took intense measures to examine the potential environmental impact such as the air quality, greenhouse emissions, (etc.), and California-protected species, such as the white-tailed kite. However, common species such as the Douglas Squirrel are not granted the same level of protection in the state and are considered game by the Department of Fish and Wildlife.
Aileen Yoo of the Marketing and Communications department confirms that the contractors keep an eye on wildlife activities during projects, and she encourages the community to reach out if there are concerns about capital projects such as the Engineering and Technology building.
“University contractors take precaution when removing trees or landscape by identifying nests or dens and notifying the University whenever possible,” Yoo said. “We encourage any observations of construction-related activities or issues with our buildings and grounds to be reported to Facilities Management at fmservice@humboldt.edu.”
The Project details
According to the Cal Poly Humboldt website, Planned Construction: 2024-2026, Project Budget: $100,000,000, Funding Source: CSU Chancellor’s Office, Humboldt Project Manager: Kassidy Banducci, Jason Baugh, Project Architect: AC Martin, Project CEQA Consultant: Ascent Environmental, Project Contractor: Swinerton Builders.
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