About our Icon – the White Pelican

Once in a while someone asks about our icon the White Pelican. Usually the question goes, “why do you use the White Pelican as your logo, it’s not really an endangered species”.  My answer steals from the old adage that says “all politics are local”. I think of the environment and its conservation the same way. The White Pelican is an endangered species in the Donner Summit Valley right now. As a top predator, the White pelican depends on a complex habitat of open water lake and all of the fauna and flora present in that environment that supports the fishery that the Pelicans prey on. It is the destruction of that habitat that will result in the disappearance of the Pelican in the Valley. As long as there is an open water lake that can support the food chain that provides these magnificent birds with sustenance, they will continue to return to the valley every summer. Once that habitat is removed, the White Pelican will be extinct in the Donner Summit Valley.