Visitors to Oak Canyon Community Park in Oak Park may have seen the five birdhouses on tall poles. The houses were built to attract barn owls, which help to naturally control rodents in the area.

The 3-by-4-foot barn owl boxes are just one of several projects completed by area Boy and Girl Scout groups on behalf of the Rancho Simi Recreation and Park District, the agency that oversees all parks in Simi Valley and Oak Park.

The Scouts have also assisted the district by constructing a handicap ramp, a sand volleyball court and kiosk information boards, among other projects. Two Scouts are building wooden information boards with protective roofs and plexiglass at the Simi Dog Park.

“We could go in and just do it,” said Colleen Janssen, park district marketing and community outreach specialist, “but we try to set aside a few projects that Scouts can do. We benefit as a community, as an agency, and it gives a young man or woman an opportunity to show what they can really do.”

The district has a list of projects that Scouts can choose from. One project proposed for Oak Canyon Park is the rehabilitation of the nature trail markers. The signs describe the native plants and other aspects of the 1.5-mile trail on the west side of the park.

When Oak Canyon first opened in October 1992 there were 20 markers along the trail. Over time the engraved plaques on metal pedestals were vandalized or have decayed, said Eugene Molnar, Rancho Simi senior maintenance supervisor. Only a few remain.

“A kid can feel pretty good about bringing that information back out,” Molnar said.

Kaleb Erickson chose the barn owl boxes for his Eagle Scout project two years ago, when he was 14. He solicited the help of a carpenter friend, who helped him build a prototype. Kaleb raised the nearly $500 needed to purchase the materials by mowing lawns, baby-sitting and saving his allowance. Local businesses gave him a discount on the supplies.

Kaleb’s design went through about four alterations before it was approved by the district.

“It took six to eight months to do the paperwork first. I had to describe the project, what I planned to do, how I was going to do it and get the blueprints approved,” said Kaleb, now 16 and a junior at Simi Valley High School. “I had to call experts for help.”

The box had to include a layer of wood over the top to prevent the inside from becoming too hot. One side had to have a flap so that the box could be opened for occasional cleaning. A predator guard had to be constructed on the inside.

“If something tries to get in, the owl can hide behind the wall and be safe,” Kaleb said.

Members of his troop helped him build, paint and install the boxes. Digging 5-foot-deep holes to install the poles turned out to be an unexpected challenge, Kaleb said. The ground was hard, and the locations had to be moved several times.

“We almost had the last hole completely done when he hit a big rock. We had to break up the rock to get the hole deep enough, and that was tough,” said Kaleb, a member of Troop 6678 in Simi.

Oak Canyon is the only Oak Park facility that contains the barn owl boxes, but a number of Simi parks have them, too. The birdhouses are placed in parks that have a large amount of open space where there might not be as many visitors to scare off rodents, Janssen said. The Oak Park Community Garden also contains a barn owl box for rodent control.

“When you put out poison bait the rodent eats it and dies, then the coyote eats the rodent, then the mountain lion eats the coyote and everyone dies,” Janssen said. “So many people resort to chemicals and don’t realize the ramifications of what they’ve done.”

A family of barn owls can consume several thousand rodents a year, Janssen said.

Typically, one owl or an owl family consisting of a mother, father and offspring will inhabit one box.

“It’s amazing. You put out the boxes and somehow they find them. It’s not like we put the Motel 6 sign up,” Jansen said. “Usually you can tell if it’s occupied if you look at the base of the pole and there’s a pile of bones and fur; that’s the waste when they’re done eating the rodents.”

The boxes appear to be working. There has been low rodent population in the area, Molnar said.