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Spring/SummerSpring/summer 2005 TERWILLIGER NATURE EEDUCATION AND WWILDLIFEILDLIFE RREHABILITATION LookingLooking BackBack MovingMoving ForwardForward WildCare News Dear Friends of WildCare: Volume 9, Number 1 It hardly seems possible that I have been WildCare’s Spring/Summer 2005 executive director for two years! It is rewarding to look Administration and Education back on the many successes during this time, and excit- 415-453-1000 FAX: 415-456-0594 ing to look forward as we work toward the future of this Wildlife Hotline and Hospital vibrant organization. 415-456-SAVE (7283) One of the things I’m most proud of is how Website www.wildcarebayarea.org WildCare’s core programs—Terwilliger Nature Education and Wildlife Rehabilitation—partner to provide out- Email [email protected] standing learning experiences for children and the larger community. Our Address 76 Albert Park Lane, San Rafael, CA 94901 Wildlife Ambassadors continue to become integrated into educational pro- Office Hours 9am–5pm M-F grams, including the Terwilliger Nature Van and Field Trips. Formerly for Exhibit Hall, Courtyard and Clinic Hours exhibit only, these non-releasable wild animals provide children with mean- 9am–5pm seven days a week ingful and memorable wildlife encounters they may never experience in their daily lives. In response to a wide range of questions, our Living with Wildlife Board of Directors Hotline, operated by hospital staff and volunteers, provides residents with President Donald Humphreys informative and timely advice. WildCare’s Fishing Line Recycling Program, Vice President Janis Wild one of our newest education initiatives, informs people about the hazards of Treasurer Vicki Rupp Secretary Marilyn Freund fishing line damage to wildlife. Debbie Benton This is our annual report issue, so it is with pride we share the accom- Barbara Elam plishments of the past year while we prepare for the busy season ahead. As Holly Hollenbeck the days get longer, our hospital is buzzing with energy in anticipation of the Lisa Spencer spring and summer baby season. The education department is actively prepar- Lifetime Honorary Director ing for summer camps and training our newest class of Terwilliger Nature Elizabeth C. Terwilliger Guides, who will be leading hundreds of children on nature explorations later Executive Director this spring and fall. Karen Wilson th On February 26 we had the biggest clean-up day in anyone’s memory to WildCare Staff “spiff” the place up. More than forty staff, board members and volunteers Jan Armstrong Joyce Bourasssa spent all day painting, repairing and enhancing caging, weeding, adding fresh Cindy Dicke Marian Eschen gravel and furnishing to cages. Never have we been so well prepared for a Jacob Fries Alison Hermance fresh start. I hope you’ll plan to visit soon! Julie Malet Tommy Nordmann Charlotte Patterson Melanie Piazza On a sad note, Tommy Nordmann, our Van Naturalist, will be leaving us Mary Pounder Paulette Smith-Ruiz to begin a new phase of his life with his New Zealand bride, Annmarie. With JoLynn Taylor Tommy “at the wheel,” the Nature Van has reached more children in chal- lenged neighborhoods throughout the Bay Area than ever before. We will miss WildCare inspires a vital connection Tommy and wish him and Annmarie the best of luck in their new home in among people, wildlife and the natural world. Florida. I hope to introduce the new Van Naturalist in our next newsletter. Wishing you many outdoor Cover Photographs: See left adventures, wildflowers and waterfalls Editorial and Production: Jan Armstrong, JoLynn Taylor during the incomparable Bay Area Website Design: Melanie Donaghy, Davina Murray spring. Thank you for your thoughtful and generous support. WildCare’s newsletter is published three times a year (February, August, November). Every effort has been made to ensure that the contents of this pub- lication are accurate. We regret that we cannot be responsible for human error, Sincerely, printing mistakes, or variations in individual workmanship. Printed in USA on Orion Satin Recycled paper by Schumann Printers, Inc., Fall River, Wisconsin. POSTMASTER send changes of address to WildCare, 76 Albert Park Lane, Karen J. Wilson San Rafael, CA 94901. Executive Director Board President Don Humphreys (third from right), staff and volunteers celebrate a hard day’s work. Photo JoLynn Taylor Cover images and credits: (center) Elizabeth Terwilliger on Recovery Unit East, JoLynn Taylor; Wildlife Ambassador D.C., her 95th birthday with daughter Lynn Ellen Terwilliger Farrell a Double-crested Cormorant, Patty Spinks; Terwilliger Nature and son John Terwilliger, Janis Wild; (clockwise from top Camp necropsy class, Karen Wilson; Striped Skunk anesthe- left) Felipe Santiago of the DMARLOU Foundation and sia, Melanie Piazza Executive Director Karen Wilson dedicate the new Wildlife 2 WildCare 415.453.1000 Spring/Summer 2005 news and notes… local heroes… -Marin Human Race May 7th! Pledge forms are at the hospital front desk, stamped and ready for you to start collecting pledges. Challenge your friends and family to pledge for you to walk or run the whole 4-mile course! It’s a great way to raise money for WildCare while getting fit for sum- Last year volunteers raised over $3,600 for WildCare in one mer. Board member Debbie Benton will festive morning. Can we top that this year? Photo by Stephen Shaw generously sponsor registration fees for Partnership describes the rela- the first participants to sign up. Anyone birds without feathers (“nudies”) and tionship between WildCare and raising more than $40 in pledges will baby mammals with their eyes closed. PG&E. When PG&E undertook receive a WildCare t-shirt, and fabulous Come to “ooooooooooooo,” and bring sponsorship for the 2004 Terwilliger prizes will be offered to the people who raise the most pledges overall! a suggested donation of $7 ($5 for Environmental Award, it seemed as members) or the equivalent value of though good partners had found Call for Interns! the following items to help us prepare each other to promote environmen- for the wild baby season. tal education and sustainability. Current volunteers and college stu- dents in biology, zoology, veterinary, or •potted trees and large plants Last summer an accident related fields are invited to apply for •plain peanut butter, wheat germ, brought us together again. An one of three internships in WildCare’s cornmeal injured juvenile Peregrine Falcon hospital. Internships are unpaid and •fresh berries, broccoli, lettuce, treated in WildCare’s hospital (see require a minimum of 24 hours per apples, eggs, grapes, plain goat’s page 6) turned out to be the off- week. Three to four spaces are avail- milk yogurt spring of a pair nesting on PG&E’s able; position reports to Director of •walnuts, almonds, pecans in shell; Beale St. headquarters building in Animal Care. Contact Melanie Piazza. seasonal fruits and nuts: acorns, San Francisco. No sooner had rep- Term 1: April 11 – July 11 persimmons, pyracantha berries resentatives of this major corpora- Term 2: May 9 – August 15 Shop—and Give—Wisely tion heard about the falcon’s plight Term 3: August 1 – October 24 than they made a gift to WildCare Register for eScrip, and you’ll give to support the treatment of Patient Spring Baby Shower to WildCare every time you shop. This #1132 and the other animal patients activity requires no time, no additional recuperating in our rehabilitation Sunday, April 24, 1-4 money, no thought. How could giving hospital. Nudies at WildCare? Yes! Featured be easier? Register at www.escrip.com! In 2005 PG&E again sponsored at our Spring Baby Shower will be baby Continued on page 7 the Terwilliger Environmental Award. Just a few weeks later, WildCare joined PG&E for another, more dramatic rescue of a juvenile Western Gull caught—dangling by a length of fishing line wrapped tight- ly around its foot—on a very high, 115,000-volt transformer wire in San Rafael. Using a large crane truck, PG&E workers carefully cut the fishing line, freeing the bird to be taken to WildCare to recover as patient #0072. PG&E’s Marie Gaynor-Murphy said, “2004 has been such an excit- ing year of partnership between PG&E and WildCare, I don’t think any of us will ever forget the mag- nificent release of the fully recov- ered Peregrine Falcon. WildCare does such great work and is such an asset to the Marin community.” Spring/Summer 2005 www.wildcarebayarea.org WildCare 3 the environmental approach… Good Kids Do Good WildCare’s already popular For adult staff and volunteers, Dishes, laundry and Student Volunteer program, open to patient care may well include some cage cleaning—some dedicated students between the ages dramatic life and death decisions, Student Volunteers of 12 and 17, is a real, up-close but for all who work in this wildlife might not do it at introduction to wild patient care. It hospital, most patient care consists home, but everyone does it at WildCare! offers the best of WildCare—a com- of daily attention to many small and Student Volunteers bination of environmental education less adrenaline-producing details— don‘t handle wild and wildlife rehabilitation to teach sweeping, cleaning, food prepara- patients, but provide those who will create a sustainable tion, feeding, recycling, garbage col- an extra pair of future for us all. lection, and more cleaning. Without hands to adult volun- Students who attend a one-hour that constant animal care and main- teers. Photos by Mary orientation with a parent and dis- tenance, even the best medical treat- Pounder cover they are ready to commit to ment can’t succeed. the program sign a participation The list of Student Volunteer job contract, attend a five-hour training details is lengthy and specific. and choose a three-hour shift that Students do not handle wild they choose.