Bullets, blood and ostrich feathers: Why are they killing Mike Matson's beloved desert birds?

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Set us as preferred NEWBERRY SPRINGS, Calif. — Two of the ostriches died instantly, hit with .22-caliber slugs fired through the fence of Mike Matson’s desert ranch.The third suffered, bleeding out then collapsing some 40 feet away.That’s the body his wife Arcelia found first, one Sunday morning in June.Matson was angry but he wasn’t surprised.

Months before, a bullet had ended the life of his beloved Pebbles, who left behind a nest with eggs.Detectives are investigating the two shootings but have made no arrests, according to the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.But Matson believes he knows who is responsible.A longtime pet breeder, Matson moved to Newberry Springs about nine years ago to raise ostriches and other exotic animals, selling their chicks and eggs.The sun-washed stretch of Mojave Desert sits at the base of a volcanic mountain range roughly 20 miles east of Barstow.The unincorporated community was once known for its plentiful water supply — so much so that in 1919, the Santa Fe Railroad renamed the town Water, according to John Wease, a local journalist and history buff.Shallow groundwater stores supported fruit orchards, alfalfa fields, livestock ranches and, at one point, a water park and dozens of manmade lakes where people could fish, sail and water ski.

A 1968 advertisement published in The Times beckoned investors to purchase their own two-acre lake for less than $12,000.“The water is so pure you can drink it,” it read, “so clean even rainbow trout will thrive in it.”The abundance didn’t last.

Aquifer levels sank, lakes dried up and most of the large farming companies departed amid water restrictions in the late 1990s.Sand dunes swallowed an entire neighborhood.

In recent years, residents have struggled with blight and property crime, according to Matson, who sits on Newbe...