Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 3, 1990 TAG: 9007030500
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B2 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WAYNESBORO LENGTH: Medium
The Du Pont Co. gave the Wildlife Center of Virginia the deed Monday to eight acres of woodlands adjacent to the George Washington National Forest. The non-profit, private group plans to build an $800,000 hospital and environmental education center on the site outside Waynesboro.
"The milestone we celebrate today is a partnership between corporation and conservation," Elizabeth Haskell said Monday. "It is a challenge to other corporations to join forces in more efforts to conserve our natural resources."
Haskell said it also was significant that Du Pont approached the wildlife center when a senior engineer found out the organization's lease on its current property in Weyers Cave was not being renewed.
"They heard the wildlife center needed land, and gave it to them," Haskell said. "This is a new brand of corporate environmental leadership, where the corporation takes the first step and gives conservation a future."
Dr. Stuart Porter said he was thinking about a recuperating bald eagle kept in a cramped pen as he surveyed the future home of the wildlife center.
After four surgical procedures on its right leg, the bird was ready for flight training to see if it could be returned to the Blue Ridge Mountain cliffs. But there were a half-dozen owls taking up the only flight pen.
"That's a pretty frustrating thing, having animals so backed up we can't move them out," Porter said.
Porter said if the donations needed to build the new hospital and conservation center come in as planned, the wild animals will have a home three times as big by the end of 1991 or early 1992.
"We are anticipating a tremendous improvement in our facilities and therefore our productivity," said Edward Clark, the director and co-founder of the center.
The inception of wildlife center came in October 1982 when Porter, the director of Blue Ridge Community College's veterinary technology program, was having a cup of coffee with Clark, an expert in wildlife conservation.
Porter said he told Clark that people kept bringing him injured and orphaned wild animals and he had nowhere to take care of them. The college president was upset that he was keeping owls in pens meant for cows and horses.
"He said, `Why don't we start our own wildlife center,' and said we could use his horse barn," Porter said.
In 1984, the center moved to its current location, where the surgical room, incubators, X-ray machine, diagnostic laboratory and intensive care unit are packed into a custom-made mobile home.
In 1989, the center had 1,316 patients, including several endangered species like the bald eagle and rare species like the black bear. In the first six months of this year, nearly 1,000 wild animals were brought in from across the state. "We're way ahead of last year," Clark said.
Monday, there were about 150 animals in cages and pens inside and outside of the hospital: four red foxes being released Tuesday, white-tailed deer fawns, peregrine falcons, red-tailed hawks, rabbits, turtles, several species of owls and dozens of other bird species.
Most of them were either hit by cars, attacked by cats or picked up as newborns by people who, many times mistakenly, thought they were abandoned. Several of the birds had been poisoned by pesticides or shot.
"We find almost every animal that comes through our doors is either directly or indirectly because of human interference," Clark said.
by CNB