California condor Eban McMillan 13 May 1964 It was clear and warm with a gentle west wind blowing as a left home heading down the Bitterwater Valley. Cattle are still on the land in the Bitterwater even though the area looks incapable of supporting them. The area from the mouth of Bitterwater valley to the Lost Hills oil fields is showing signs of blowing badly. Stopping at Minter Field I talked with Ben Easley who is in charge of squirrel poisoning in Kern County. He said that crews were at work now on the Hudson Ranch above Maricopa and that a crew had been working in the McKittick area. Carl Twisselmann and Ernest Still have been poisoning off and on, having to stop to ship cattle at times. Ben Easley said that no poisoning was now going on where heavy concentrations of squirrels occur. He said one of his men, George Moore, was running a small crew on the Mandubury property, lease, east of Famosa, but that they were not putting out much poison. Mr. Easley told me that Freeland Farnsworth was to bring in five-thousand pounds of grain for Mr. Easley to mix with [illegible] poison that Farnsworth was to put out on his property for rats. Easley also mentioned that The Woody Ranch, that had ordered 500 pounds of rat poison three weeks ago, had not put it out yet. I questioned Mr. Easley if the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service got their 1080 poison from his office. He said No, that oftentimes it is the other way. That his office gets 1080 from the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service in Boise, Idaho.