Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, October 12, 1993 TAG: 9310120162
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: CATHRYN McCUE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
Well, neither do wild animals abandon their young if touched by humans.
"If there's one piece of misinformation we want to obliterate, that's it," said Ed Clark, director of the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Weyers Cave.
This kind of public education about wildlife recently helped the center earn the National Environmental Achievement Award, given by the country's leading environmental organizations.
"We received notification that we'd won, and boy, we were just floored," Clark said Monday. He and 19 other winners will attend a ceremony in Washington, D.C., this week to accept the award.
The center has treated more than 13,000 animals since opening in 1982, many of them newly born. Every spring, Clark said, people bring to the center baby birds and other critters they find out in the woods, thinking the mother has abandoned them.
The center also treats animals - from hummingbirds to black bears - that have been hit by cars, poisoned by pesticides or otherwise harmed by accidental run-ins with human activity. Other animals are deliberately injured, sometimes by kids with BB guns, Clark said.
"We could fix all the broken animals," Clark said. But the veterinary treatment was only temporary "until we addressed the reasons why they were hurt."
The center expanded its mission to include environmental education, and has reached an estimated 475,000 with its message, Clark said. The center also conducts research and lobbies on national environmental policies. It played a key role in the federal ban of the pesticide Furadan, which the center found was killing bald eagles.
The center also has established a "first-of-its-kind" partnership with the George Washington National Forest to build a $2 million, 400-acre environmental education facility. It will be built with federal funds but managed solely by the center's staff adjacent to the center's planned new location in Waynesboro.
The award was given by Renew America, a coalition of national conservation and environmental groups.
Dan Greenfield, spokesman for Renew America, said the award is not handed out lightly.
"The winners go through a very stringent process," he said. "There's nothing else like it in the country."
This is the third year Renew America has given the awards, which are given to nonprofit groups, local governments, businesses and communities. The wildlife center is the only Virginia winner this year. Last year, Clark County, near Winchester, won for its ground-water protection plan, Greenfield said.
One of this year's 20 winners will receive a $5,000 award from Rodale Press, which will be announced at the ceremony.
NOTE: Shorter version ran in Metro edition.
by CNB