Center for Wildlife
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Mission Statement
Wild animals may often seem like part of the background, but they are deeply connected to our lives; signals of spring by calls of peepers, or bats managing insect populations, promoting healthy humans, forestry, and agriculture. We work daily to ensure wildlife’s future, and allow our community to celebrate that connection. Center for Wildlife’s mission is to build a sustainable future for wildlife in our community by providing medical care and treatment to injured and orphaned wildlife, contributing to conservation research, offering environmental education and outreach programs to the public, and providing robust volunteer and intern programs. We treat more than 2,200 animals a year, present over 350 environmental education programs, answer 15,000+ inquiries on our Wildlife Assistance Hotline, and host 30+ college interns annually. Animals released, or ambassadors met in education programs, have the potential to impact and change their population, their rescuer’s perspective on wildlife, the volunteer care-takers understanding of wildlife and ecology, or a program participant's life forever.
About This Cause
HISTORY: A veterinarian in York, Maine founded Center for Wildlife in 1986. In 1994, the Center moved to its current site in Cape Neddick, Maine, and within 5 years was treating over 1,000 animals annually. Today, Center for Wildlife proudly serves the New England region managing over 2,200 cases each year (native wildlife injured or orphaned due to habitat loss, vehicle collisions, pollution, oil spills, and other unnatural causes), representing more than 190 species of birds, reptiles and mammals. With support from individuals, businesses, and foundations, Center for Wildlife facilities have grown from one trailer with no running water, to a small medical clinic with 45+ outdoor enclosures, including a waterfowl enclosure with deep, filtrating pools for our diving and coastal water-birds. Since our inception, Center for Wildlife has admitted and treated over 37,000 injured and orphaned wild animals! For over 25 years, Center for Wildlife has also provided environmental education and outreach programs bringing live animal ambassadors to schools, libraries, state parks, senior centers, and other venues, providing a unique learning experience to over 10,000 individuals each year. The Center includes a robust internship program hosting college students from across the country, and an active volunteer base. We partner with regional universities and the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife to prepare for and address natural disasters and zoonotic diseases. Most recent contributions include a study on the presence of local and systemic infections of turtles with shell fractures, and a post-release tracking study of an adult one-eyed owl. Center for Wildlife’s Wildlife Assistance Hotline fields over 15,000 calls each year providing assistance to callers from all over New England. MAJOR PROGRAMS: CONSERVATION MEDICINE Our Wildlife Medical Clinic provides specialized care, treatment, and rehabilitation for more than 2,200 injured and orphaned animals brought to us from more than 120 communities across the region including Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts. Patients brought to us may be a Virginia opossum hit by a car with a pouch full of babies, a Northern gannet found struggling on the beach tangled in fishing line, or a wood turtle struck by a car on her journey to lay her eggs. These wild animals are brought to us each year by the caring public that have no place else to turn. The Center is one of New England’s largest and most community-involved wildlife medical centers and collaborates closely with municipal animal control departments, veterinarians, animal shelters and smaller local rehabilitators to provide transport, treatment and shelter resources. We work with larger centers throughout New England on many cases in a consulting capacity. With 20+ years of combined experience in wildlife medicine, rehabilitative techniques, ecology, and biology, Center for Wildlife’s four dedicated and knowledgeable medical clinic staff continue to be instrumental in improving the medical treatment and rehabilitation of local wildlife and contributing to the knowledge-base relating to the diversity of species, injuries, illnesses and diseases that are treated annually. Today, the rehabilitation provided at Center for Wildlife is unsurpassed due to growing diagnostics and research capabilities. This also allows the Center to provide a rich learning experience for over 30 college interns and more than 70 animal care volunteers each year. ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION AND OUTREACH The goal of Center for Wildlife's education and outreach programs is to connect the community to nature in a meaningful way. Ultimately, we aim to inspire people to protect wildlife and the environment by providing children, college interns, volunteers, and adults with opportunities to: 1. Connect with and develop respect for the rich diversity of birds, mammals and reptiles in our area 2. Become knowledgeable of the positive and negative ways human activity impacts wildlife 3. Take action to help protect the wildlife species they learn about We have an incredible team of 26 non-releasable ambassadors including hawks, falcons, owls, crow, vulture, gray squirrel, bat, porcupine, Virginia opossum, and 2 species of turtles that present with our Project Wild certified educators. People are awe-inspired by their up-close encounters and experiences with these amazing animals. There an audible intake of breath as our majestic great-horned owl, Gaia, is presented, and an “awww” as our big brown bat, Brownie, shows the audience that bats are special creatures not to be feared or intentionally injured. Our programs illustrate that although the connection is often unseen, human health depends on healthy wildlife and habitats. INVESTING IN WILDLIFE CAPITAL CAMPAIGN Center for Wildlife is in the midst of a 3-year, $4.5M capital campaign to expand our facility and create a conservation campus to live our mission in a more meaningful and sustainable way. Although our programs, animal admission rates, and overall demand for services have increased significantly over the past 25 years, our physical space has remained unchanged. Our wildlife medical clinic (and 2,200 animal admissions), education programs, 12 staff, and 80 volunteers all operate out of a 1,200 square foot donated ranch house that is literally falling apart at the seams. Not only are we losing money due to the high operating costs of the current building, but we also turn away approximately $30,000+ annually in earned income because we are unable to host private groups or large education programs onsite. There is one pavilion that is currently used for education programs, but it can only seat 25 people and is only accessible in the warmer months. The new Center for Wildlife will feature a 10,000 square foot footprint, and include an expanded wildlife medical clinic, 120-person auditorium, nature discovery center, classroom, conference room, outdoor amphitheater, intern housing, nature trails, vernal pool boardwalks, a yoga and mindfulness pavilion, and office space for program and leadership staff. Upon completion, the Investing in Wildlife Campaign will allow Center for Wildlife to: • Safely accommodate growing patient loads • Host year-round and larger group education programs to increase program impact • Increase earned income through private event rentals, education programs, workshops, and conferences • Accept larger in-kind gifts, like medical equipment in the clinic • Provide a place for visitors to connect with nature and wildlife in a meaningful way, inspiring them to protect our native species and natural resources • Increase training opportunities for interns, volunteers, and professionals in the field • Host 8 interns seasonally onsite, increasing the competition of our program and alleviating the need for home stay families • Decrease our environmental footprint by incorporating several green building initiatives like solar panels, rainwater collection systems, and organic food and pollinator gardens • Improve our overall financial durability and sustainability EFFORTS AT COORDINATION WITH OTHER AGENCIES: Center for Wildlife contributes all animal admission data to the national WILD-ONe database, created by the Wildlife Center of Virginia. This system provides wildlife rehabilitators with invaluable information like injury and disease trends, and current wildlife challenges. We can then share this info through our education and outreach programs to help mitigate challenges and inform the public about real-time conservation issues. We can also use this data to collaborate with regional universities, including University of New Hampshire, Tufts University, and Cornell University, on greater environmental health issues, like the 2017 die-off of Northern gannets along the Eastern seaboard. We are hopeful that all of this data can inform local and regional land-use planners to better protect wildlife and habitat, including Conservation Commissions, Planning Boards, Department of Transportation, ME Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, NH Fish and Game, etc. Center for Wildlife is one of only two facilities in the entire state of Maine licensed to treat critical bat patients (whose populations have sharply declined in recent years due to white-nosed syndrome), and we are one of the only agencies in the state able to handle oiled birds or turtles resulting from spills along the Maine coast. We also continue to work with the state to survey declining turtle populations in an effort to build community awareness and reduce road mortalities in areas where crossings are predominant for species like the endangered and threatened Blanding’s and spotted turtle, a species of special concern the wood turtle, and the more common painted and snapping turtles. Center for Wildlife has also contributed to USDA’s study of the zoonotic disease among seabirds. In addition to research efforts, we work regularly with game wardens, police officers, Animal Control Officers, and others who are grateful to have a place to bring injured wildlife. This reduces pressure to already stretched government programs, and ensures that injured and orphaned wildlife receive the treatment they deserve. Center for Wildlife also works with other educational organizations to provide comprehensive outreach across our local communities in the areas of wildlife and habitat conservation and stewardship. The Center’s partners include: Maine Audubon/Falmouth ME, Animal Welfare Society/Kennebunk ME, SPCA/Stratham NH, York Land Trust, Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve, the Youth Enrichment Center at Hilton-Winn Farm, White Pine nature-based learning programs and Mt. Agamenticus Conservation Program, among others. Each organization works on a “piece of the puzzle” and by working together we can provide a more comprehensive picture of the local natural environment and how humans can protect it. HOURS: Center for Wildlife is open to the public of all ages, income levels, and ability levels every day of the year from 9:00a - 5:00p for animal admissions and self-guided tours.