Press Release
Media Contact: carmelowls.org/contact
Website: carmelowls.org
Logos: logo
Royalty Free Photos: All photos on the Carmel Owls website may be used without permission. Please give credit to those photos with the photographer's signatures.
About Carmel Owls
Carmel Owls is a volunteer conservation organization based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, dedicated to protecting and supporting local Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus). through their free Adopt an Owl Platform initiative, nesting platform deployment, education, and community outreach across the Monterey Peninsula. Carmel Owls is partnered with Camel Cares to accept 501c3 donations.
About Carmel Owls
Carmel Owls is a volunteer conservation organization based in Carmel-by-the-Sea, California, dedicated to protecting and supporting local Great Horned Owls (Bubo virginianus). through their free Adopt an Owl Platform initiative, nesting platform deployment, education, and community outreach across the Monterey Peninsula. Carmel Owls is partnered with Camel Cares to accept 501c3 donations.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
September 22, 2026
Carmel Owls Installs 29 Great Horned Owl Platforms Across the Monterey Peninsula
Twenty-five volunteers, motivated homeowners, and more than 50 financial sponsors raised $27,000 to strengthen Great Horned Owl habitats.
CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — Carmel Owls has reached a major conservation milestone: 29 Great Horned Owl nesting platforms are now installed throughout the Monterey Peninsula, thanks to an extraordinary team of 25 volunteers and more than 50 financial sponsors who have contributed $27,000 to the volunteer-led effort.
With eight more platforms installed last week, the platforms now stretch across Carmel-by-the-Sea, Carmel, Carmel Highlands, Carmel Knolls, Carmel Point, Carmel Views, Carmel Valley, High Meadows, Pacific Grove, Pebble Beach, Tehama, and Monterey, creating potential nesting sites for Great Horned Owls throughout the region.
Nesting Season Approaches
During December and January, a Great Horned Owl pair may select one of the platforms, settle in, and lay their eggs. Roughly 30 to 37 days later, typically in February, two or three owlets may take up residence.
That's when mama and papa owl get seriously busy.
With hungry owlets demanding dinner, Great Horned Owl parents can hunt and shred up to seven rodents a night — rats, mice, and gophers disappearing one talon at a time.
No poison. No traps. No batteries. Just nature's original rodent-control system.
“Twenty-nine platforms installed in nine months is a tremendous milestone for a completely volunteer organization,” said Paul Falworth, founder and Chief Owl Officer of Carmel Owls. “But what really makes this possible are our volunteers, homeowners, and more than 50 financial sponsors who believed in what we're doing. Together, they've helped us strengthen the Great Horned Owl habitat across the Monterey Peninsula while demonstrating that sometimes the best rodent control has wings, talons, and works the night shift.”
Talons Beat Poison
Carmel Owls promotes Great Horned Owls as a natural alternative to rodenticides, which can move through the food chain when owls and other predators consume poisoned rodents.
Each Carmel Owls platform is built from redwood and cedar shingles, with raised safety edges for owlets and weather-resistant construction designed to withstand decades of coastal conditions.
The platforms are installed high in suitable trees throughout the Monterey Peninsula by Carmel Owls' volunteer installation crew, using specialized equipment and carefully coordinated safety procedures.
The goal isn't simply to install platforms. It's to establish and strengthen a network of potential nesting sites throughout Great Horned Owl territories across the Peninsula.
Got Rats? Adopt an Owl Platform
Carmel Owls is continuing to identify suitable properties for future installations through its free Adopt an Owl Platform program.
And homeowners may already have a compelling financial reason to apply.
If a rat has ever crawled under the hood of your car, chewed through the wiring harness, and presented you with a $5,000 repair bill, consider giving its natural predator a home in your tree.
Before the rats come back for a second course.
Suitable properties require an appropriate mature tree, safe access for installation equipment, and sufficient separation from existing owl territories and electrical hazards.
A video documenting the installation operations, along with photographs from the day’s activities, is available on the CarmelOwls.org website.
