OWCN

Registering in the OWCN Responder Database

Becoming a registered OWCN responder enables participation in OWCN’s response activities, training program, and events. Registered responders are eligible to respond as affiliated volunteers with no additional training required, or may pursue training to qualify to respond in more advanced roles as pre-trained volunteers or paid staff.

To register, an individual must be:

1. Affiliated with an OWCN Member Organization

Affiliated individuals are active volunteers or staff with an OWCN Member Organization, where they gain skills important for oil spill response. Lindsay Wildlife is an OWCN Member Organization.

2. Interested and available to participate in oil spill response as part of OWCN response operations

Responders should be willing to commit to participating in response activities when possible. OWCN’s mandate includes responding to spills that affect wildlife within the state of California.

3. At least 18 years of age

Spill responders must be at least 18 years old, therefore you must be 18 to register in our database and participate in OWCN trainings and other activities.

If you are interested in becoming an OWCN responder, contact the Wildlife Rehabilitation Volunteer Manager for the link to fill out the online registration application.

Registration is not open to the public, please do not distribute the link. If you know other interested parties, they also should contact the Wildlife Rehabilitation Volunteer Manager.

OWCN Training Opportunities


AT THIS TIME (8/5/20), DUE TO COVID PRECAUTIONS, ALL IN-PERSON TRAINING IS CANCELLED FOR THE REMAINDER OF 2020. NEW TRAINING, POSSIBLY IN ALTERNATE FORMATS, WILL BE POSTED HERE AS WE ARE NOTIFIED.


To sign up for any of the below classes, log into your OWCN Responder Profile (myvolunteerpage.com) and sign up under the “Opportunities” section. Courses are free and available only to active OWCN responders who have a responder profile. For a short video of this process, click here:

Please note the following information about registering for Basic Responder Training, HAZWOPER Refresher, and many other OWCN classes:

  • You must complete the 2016 NEW Core webinars (OWCN Overview, Spill Basics, and Responder Involvement) prior to signing up. If you have not done so, you will not be able to view the registration for these events. All 3 webinars combined take about 2.5 hours to complete, and cover critical information every responder needs. They are also prerequisites for nearly all OWCN activities and events.

  • After finishing the Core webinars, please allow several business days for credit to be applied to your Qualifications in your profile.

  • If you have completed the Core webinars and they are marked as “completed” in your profile, and you are still not seeing the class in the “Opportunities” page, the section is likely full. Please add yourself to the wait list, as we anticipate seats opening up in each class.

  • To add yourself to the wait list for a full class, go to the “Opportunities” page and under “Filter Activities” at the top, make sure the box for “Only include activities that have openings available” is unchecked (see screenshot below), then select “Filter Activities”. Scroll to the activity you want to sign up for, select the title, then scroll down and select “Add me to the back-up list”.

A summary of the OWCN training pathway is available at this link:

A walkthrough for managing your webinars and OWCN volunteer activities is available at this link:

Any of the OWCN classes will count toward Wildlife Rehabilitation Continuing Education for the Lindsay Wildlife Hospital. Please see the Hospital Volunteer Manager for more information.

How to un-filter training listings on the OWCN volunteer website so you can see sessions that are currently full, but may have a waiting list. Make sure the indicated box is unchecked.




Info on the class, and where to add yourself to the waitlist. (Note: the Location information will vary by class.)

OWCN Webinars (available anytime)

Don’t forget to check out the OWCN webinar library on various spill response topics. These courses are free and available 24/7.

New Webinars

  • Introduction to Wildlife Nutrition & Feeding (available anytime)

  • Field Stabilization (new version)

Marine Mammal

  • Ecology, Biology, and Natural History

  • Processing & Intake

  • Pre-Wash Care and Cleaning

Basic Responder Training (BRT) Classes

Currently, the following sessions are scheduled:

  • March 4, 2019 at Estuary & Ocean Science Center, Tiburon

  • March 12, 2019 at Marine Wildlife Care Center (HSU), Arcata

  • June 25, 2019 at Project Wildlife, San Diego

  • June 27, 2019 at Los Angeles Oiled Bird Care and Education Center, San Pedro

  • January 30th, 2020 at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom, Vallejo (just a few spots left!)

  • February 8th, 2020 at The Marine Mammal Center - San Luis Obispo Operations, Morro Bay

  • June 17th, 2020 at Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, Huntington Beach CANCELLED

  • September 22nd, 2020 at San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center, Fairfield CANCELLED

  • October 7th, 2020 at Wetlands & Wildlife Care Center, Huntington Beach CANCELLED

Remember: this class requires completion of Core Webinars, and will not appear on your profile until credit for the Core has been applied.

This full day training will cover common concepts and skills applicable across all areas of wildlife response. The elements are designed to help participants navigate spill response in a prepared manner (i.e. animal handling, spill structure). Those who complete this class will be classified in our database as pre-trained volunteers, rather than affiliated volunteers.

The Basic Responder training is NOT required to volunteer during a spill response, but completion of this training will allow you to receive priority pick for spill response as a pre-trained volunteer. This training will also make you eligible to move on to the next level of training (Oiled Wildlife Specialist).

For those taking the Basic Responder training, you will be required to complete a refresher every 3 years.

This class will count as 8 hours WR Continuing Education credit for Lindsay volunteers. You must notify the Volunteer Manager when you take an OWCN course so attendance can be verified from your OWCN profile.

HAZWOPER

As always, the HAZWOPER Refresher webinar is available online 24/7 to those who need it. Don’t forget to check your HAZWOPER expiration date and refresh annually to maintain your certification!

As of January 1, 2018, the 2016 NEW Core Webinars (OWCN Overview, Spill Basics, and Responder Involvement) are required to access all HAZWOPER classes, including the online refresher.

24-hr HAZWOPER (3 day course)

  • February 11th-13th, 2020 at Greater Farallones Association, San Francisco (almost full!)

  • September 22nd - 24th, 2020 at Los Angeles Oiled Bird Care and Education Center, San Pedro CANCELLED

Remember: this class requires completion of the Core Webinars.

Oiled Wildlife Specialist Training

OWCN launched a new class in 2018 called the "Oiled Wildlife Specialist Training" which is the next level of training beyond Basic Responder. Because this is a more advanced class, it requires more prerequisites and experience to attend than some of their other offerings. So if you are interested in attending, you may want to begin preparing now. See the attached description of the class for more information.

The Oiled Wildlife Specialist Workshop is a two-day class for individuals with moderate to advanced hands-on experience related to at least one aspect of oiled wildlife response. It is open both to species specialists and multi-species responders, and is intended to give participants a deeper understanding of spill response operations, broaden the applicability of the responder’s existing skills, and increase consistency between responders.

  • August 21-22, 2019 at Marine Wildlife Veterinary Care and Research Center, Santa Cruz

  • November (exact dates TBD) at San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center, Cordelia

  • August 12th - 13th, 2020 at Los Angeles Oiled Bird Care and Education Center, San Pedro CANCELLED

  • November 18th-19th, 2020 at San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center, Fairfield CANCELLED

Remember: this class requires numerous prerequisites, including Core Webinars, Basic Responder Training, and a few more (refer to Prerequisite Matrix below). This class will not appear on your profile until prerequisites have all been completed and credit applied.

Individuals who have completed this training are expected to be familiar with spill response procedures and proficient in the fundamental skills required to complete standard tasks in their specialization area & species with minimal training and supervision. Because a two-day class cannot confer competency with skills that are not practiced regularly, participants should obtain experience and practice skills (usually at an OWCN Member Organization) for at least 500 hours prior to applying to attend this class (that’s approximately 3 months full time or 2.5 years of weekly 4 hour shifts).

There are five specialization options for attendees to choose from:

  • Recovery & Hazing Specialist

  • Field Stabilization Specialist

  • Intake & Processing Specialist

  • Pre-Wash Care Specialist

  • Cleaning & Conditioning Specialist

Each specialization has different required and recommended preparatory materials (see prerequisite matrix). Keep in mind that this is an advanced training and expect more homework investment than many OWCN offerings. Each specialization has 3-4 hours of track-specific classes in addition to the standard training pathway.

Please see the attached materials for the description and prerequisites of this class:


Incident Command System

The Incident Command System is a critical tool of oil spill response, and there are several free online webinars on the FEMA website. Here are links to those classes for those of you who are interested, and don’t forget to upload your certificate(s) to your OWCN Responder Profile to get credit (and notify the Lindsay Hospital Volunteer Manager to get Lindsay CE credit):

Full Deployment Drill - 2019 POSTPONED

This message is to formally announce our upcoming annual OWCN Full Deployment Drill, taking place on POSTPONED Wednesday, April 10th, 2019 from 0700 to 1600.

We wanted to share this opportunity with all of our California responders as an FYI as we rotate drill locations each year, and this year we have targeted the Bay Area region. This drill will focus on initial response actions and also cover many aspects of oiled wildlife response, including hazing, recovery, field stabilization and care and processing. If you live in Northern California and would like to fill a volunteer role at this drill, this email is meant for you, so please read on!

One of our primary objectives for this drill is to assess the OWCN's ability to mobilize resources and personnel in a timely fashion for a significant incident in the Bay Area. As such, we have purposefully limited some of the advance information we have typically shared prior to drills in the past in an effort to maintain as much realism as possible.

With that said, we will have multiple volunteer opportunities available on 4/10/19. The catch is we will NOT be making those opportunities live via the responder database until next Monday, April 8th at 0900. If you are available and interested in participating in our drill as a volunteer, please log into your responder profile next Monday to sign up!

General Info: The OWCN will be activated at some point on Tuesday, April 9th, and at that time, all registered volunteers will receive additional information, including the Exercise Plan. Volunteers will be asked to report to the San Francisco Bay Oiled Wildlife Care and Education Center (4369 Cordelia Road , Fairfield, California 94534) on Wednesday, April 10th. Coffee and light breakfast will be provided at 0700, with drill play beginning at 0730. Play and post play hotwash discussion will conclude no later than 1600.

If you have any additional questions at this time, please don't hesitate to contact us at owcn@ucdavis.edu. Thank you, and we hope to see many of you Bay Area Responders there next week!

Please Note: If you sign up for a volunteer role, you will responsible for your own travel and accommodations (you will not be reimbursed for these expenses). Breakfast and lunch will be provided for all volunteers on 4/10/19.