For my Eagle Scout Project, I constructed 15 barn owl homes for the city of Piedmont and the Piedmont Unified School District. Piedmont has a recognized rodent problem. The city and the Unified School District have recommended that 12-15 attractive barn owl homes should be placed throughout the city.

Providing homes that will attract barn owls is an environmentally safe method to reduce the rodent population. Two parent owls and an average clutch of five chicks are capable of eating 3000 rodents during the breeding season. Farmers have used barn owl homes successfully to reduce rodent populations.

This method of rodent control would serve to reduce Piedmont’s rodent problem as well as give barn owls man-made nesting sites to offset their loss of natural nesting sites. Rodent control by poisons alone can be very expensive and environmentally hazardous. This Eagle Scout project would primarily address Piedmont’s need to reduce rodents and additionally provide homes for this important bird.