NEW RIVER WILDLIFE CENTER IS CLOSING FOR THE TIME BEING

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, February 14, 1992                   TAG: 9202140307
SECTION: CURRENT                    PAGE: NRV-2   EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY 
SOURCE: KIM SUNDERLAND
DATELINE: RINER                                LENGTH: Medium
NEW RIVER WILDLIFE CENTER IS CLOSING FOR THE TIME BEING
Economics and location are forcing the indefinite closing of the New River Wildlife Center in Riner.
The concept is not dead, however, and temporary care for injured animals and birds will be established in two Blacksburg residences until a new facility can be located there.
"We don't think this will be fatal," board member and spokesman Roger Hunt said Thursday. "We think this will turn out all right."
The center's board of directors voted earlier this week to begin "a series of crucial changes," said Chairwoman Lisa Olver, to strengthen and save the center, which serves all of Southwest Virginia.
The only other similar facility is the Virginia Wildlife Center in Weyers Cave in the Shenandoah Valley.
There are several reasons for the board's decision. One is money. A sagging economy has hurt fund raising.
"It's tough to raise money right now," Hunt said.
Also, without a resident animal caretaker, it has been hard to keep volunteers.
Founder and former center director Rose Norris left that position last April amid disagreements with the board, a lack of money and overall burnout.
"Rose foresaw all this," Hunt said. "If we had a person out there like [her] . . . it would have worked out a lot better."
Norris, who works in entomology at Virginia Tech and who holds state and federal permits to keep and rehabilitate disabled migratory birds for education, currently has a permit to keep four birds of prey in her home in the Longshop-McCoy section of the county.
At present, however, she is not operating a wildlife center.
Without a resident supervisor at the center, Hunt said there has been a high turnover of volunteers who have found it hard to learn required skills.
"There's no one there on a full-time basis to show them what they need to know," he said.
The facility's location on Poff School Road also is a problem.
Since most of the volunteers come from Virginia Tech, the distance and rural nature of the area have made it difficult to get to the center.
The center was relocated to Riner in 1990 after Norris was evicted from a farm near Prices Fork where she ran the operation.
Hunt said the board will spend the next few years looking for a new location in Blacksburg that is closer to the university.
"This could be perceived as a backward move, but we're trying to think about the long term," Hunt said.
Animal care managers Jackie Collins and Sue Jones have set up temporary care operations in their Blacksburg homes.
The board is seeking other volunteers to offer their homes as a refuge for orphaned baby animals, a crucial need since the nesting season is right around the corner.
About a dozen wild birds and mammals will remain in fly cages at the center until volunteers can be found to help them, Hunt said.
Rehabilitating injured animals and returning them to the wild is still the board's main concern, and certification programs will be conducted in Radford, Christiansburg and Blacksburg for volunteers.
"The conditions which prompted these changes were of such magnitude that we believe these steps were necessary to ensure our continued well-being," Olver said in a letter to center supporters. "We believe these changes will result in a stronger [center]."
For more information, call 381-0426.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB