California Condor Eben McMillan 17 December 1963 Dr. Alden Miller led off with a thorough discussion regarding the matter of right-of-way roads through the Condor Refuge that are in the process of being planned now, as access into the Sespe River area where a water compoundment, or dam, is proposed on the Sespe River immediately above the north boundary of the wildlife area. A letter had been written to other members of the Sespe Wildlife Area Committee by Mr. Dolman recently concerning this matter and had been put called off until this meeting by Dr. Miller and Mr. Buckheister, so that the problem of Condor preservation could be successfully aired. It was agreed by all three members of the Advisory Committee, with no opposition, that under no condition would they recommend any right-of-way up the Sespe River drainage to this projected dam site; and that if anything, restrictions would be put into effect by anyone using the corridors now in use and that travel over any portion of these corridors not maintained as a roadway should be closed to all motorized vehicular traffic. Both Mr. Buckheister and Dr. Miller could be expected to support such a proposal and it was most encouraging to see that Mr. Dolman's concern for the Condor, especially after having been briefed in by Dr. Miller on findings to date by the research team of Jan and I that all condor Numbers are down from the last appraisal of the population by Carl Koford in 1952 and that the birds are in immediate trouble, was most sympathetic and well voiced by him during this discussion. Concern was also expressed at this point by Dr. Miller relative to recent trail developments on the peripheral areas adjacent to the Sespe Wildlife Area and the opening of these areas to hunting this fall for the first time in twenty odd years such had been