Kennewick Power Out? Thank A Squirrel Parks Employee Set Critters Free In Park, Where They Blossomed

Cal Bickle had a simple idea backed by the best intentions.

Sitting on a park bench, he wanted to see squirrels.

But in the early 1970s, the Tri-Cities had none. Although the atomic towns of Kennewick, Pasco and Richland blossomed during World War II some 30 years earlier, the communities still lacked amenities other urban areas enjoyed every day.

Sure, scientists had harnessed nuclear power at Hanford to produce electricity, but near their homes were scores of city parks - and nary a squirrel among them.

Until Cal Bickle came along.

In a move that would forever change the local ecosystem - and keep electrical providers cursing for years - Bickle, a Kennewick parks employee at the time, procured a dozen red squirrels in Walla Walla and set them free in Keewaydin Park in Kennewick.

And not only did he set them free, but Bickle also made sure his efforts wouldn’t fail.

He fashioned special nesting huts out of plywood and sticks, and used city lifts and ladders to nail them into the highest branches of towering poplar trees.

He hauled in hundreds of pounds of nuts to help the hairy creatures make it through the cold season, and watched over the cozy couples as they paired up and began producing offspring.

Bickle’s transplant experiment was a booming success, and parkgoers across Kennewick commended him, gathered nuts for his cause and leaned back in their benches to watch the squirrel fun unfold.

Not everyone was smiling.

Maybe the project was destined to have a dark side since Bickle imported delinquent squirrels - pesky pests from Walla Walla had bothered homeowners enough to have them removed.

That was the core group Bickle brought back and released in the mid-1970s - and from which possibly every squirrel seen in town today is a descendant.

Rick Reil, spokesman for the Benton County PUD, grumbled: “Over the past, probably 15 years, since they’ve become very widespread, hundreds of power outages have been caused by squirrels, costing the district thousands of dollars in materials and labor.”

Thousands of dollars? That’s right, Reil said, it seems those bushy-tailed pests have a penchant from walking power wires like tightropes. And when they reach the end of the line, sometimes, they reach the end of the line.

Their brushlike backsides occasionally short out transformers, cutting power to homes and businesses and cooking the squirrel.

Since squirrels arrived, Reil said, thousands of dollars have been invested in squirrel-proofing transformers - not to save the squirrels, but to cut down on outages.

“It started becoming a real prob lem,” Reil said, especially around Keewaydin Park, near Kennewick City Hall, Kennewick General Hospital, the library, Kennewick School District and even the Benton County PUD.

“So you have all the municipal districts all clustered around Keewaydin Park and the city’s calling ‘Our power’s out’,” Reil said. “And everybody was very upset and at the same time we were out there installing squirrel guards as fast as we can.”

Bickle, however, went about his business, apparently oblivious to any potential problems the squirrels had - or would - cause.

“I never really thought that much about that,” said Bickle, now 70. “But most people really love them.”