1980 Burrowing owls were declared extirpated from British Columbia From 1983-1986, Ralph Ritcey, Dave Low, and Doug Jury of the Kamloops Wildlife staff released Burrowing Owls from an Ontario owl rehabilitation centre. Owls were released into artificial burrows, in locations from Douglas Lake ranch, to near Cache Creek. Over the years 1986-1989, complete families of Burrowing Owls were relocated from from Washington State to BC release sites near Osoyoos and Vaseaux Lakes. The BC Environment Ministry transplanted a total of 587 birds. They were mostly young pre-fledgling juveniles, translocated to a series of artificial burrows. Despite large numbers of translocated birds and successful breeding by released owls in the field, the migratory return rates were low. The program was discontinued in 1989. Our group of volunteers originated in 1988. Back then our members worked as the Stanley Park Ecology Society on several environmental projects. This was the beginning of the activities of that eventually morphed into the Burrowing Owl Society. 1990 The Burrowing Owl Recovery Program began to take shape in BC in 1990 and a new strategy was planned. By 1992, our crew were actively involved in building nests and breeding facilities at Kamloops and Port Kells. The road to recovery had begun with early crew of volunteers Mike Mackintosh, Jim Wyse, Dave Lowe, Patti Beer, Steve Church, Elaine Humphries, Nadine Gomm, Mary Anne Unruh, Cliff LeMire and others who cared about conservation of this iconic grassland species. 2001 Founder Mike Mackintosh registered the Burrowing Owl Society of BC on January 1st 2001. Two breeding facilities were operating at Port Kells and Kamloops. A third breeding facility was planned for Oliver. It officially opened in 2011 and it was built not only as another facility, but as a way of protecting the precious owl genetics in case of disease or other disaster at one of the other two sites. 2015 In 2015 the Burrowing Owl Estate Winery purchased the land that South Okanagan Rehabilitation Centre for Owls (SORCO) and the Burrowing Owl Conservation Society of BC (BOCS BC) breeding facility are on. SORCO and BOCS BC now co-own the land to protect future breeding populations.