The Wildlife Center of Virginia provides educational programs for thousands of students each year. While in-school programming is the most popular, many groups have been requesting information on field trips to our facility. The environmental education team offers several opportunities for groups interested in visiting our Center. Since WCV is a working wildlife hospital, we are not open for unscheduled tours. However, we invite you to explore some of the field trip opportunities listed below. Your group can come to WCV or the Bear Oak Environmental Education Center for exciting field trips and visits. Choose from among the following opportunities.

Wildlife Center of Virginia Tour
Groups explore the workings of our hospital for wildlife with a video-tour of the facility. Meet the resident education animals including owls, hawks, and snakes.

Hospital and Habitat
Groups combine The Wildlife Center Tour with a Wildlife Expedition, for a look at what happens to an animal at The Center, as well as seeing the larger context of wildlife habitat. We bring The Wildlife Center's environmental message full circle.

Bear Oak Adventures

The Wildlife Center of Virginia and the U.S. Forest Service agreed in 1992 to establish an innovative environmental education program in an 360-acre area of the George Washington National Forest in Virginia called the Bear Oak Environmental Education Center. At Bear Oak, The Wildlife Center of Virginia offers area schools a unique outdoor education experience, blending The Center's nonreleasable education animals and the forest environment in a program called, "The Wildlife Connection." The Wildlife Connection and the other programs offered at Bear Oak explore people's connections with the forest and the wildlife that live there.

Wildlife Connection
Groups of up to 100 3rd-4th graders experience the forest as a hawk, owl, opossum, or snake. For 4 hours, groups explore the George Washington National Forest and participate in sensory activities to discover what animals need to survive in the wild. Learn that animals and people really do need the same things and find out what we can do to protect wildlife and ourselves.

Hopper Herding
Groups of up to 30. Ages 6 and above spend up to 3 hours exploring the world of insects and spiders using a variety of collection and inspection methods, games, and activities.

Camouflage
Groups of up to 30. Ages 6 and above have an up to 3-hour adventure in invisibility. Kids will learn how animals blend into the forest environment.

Wet and Wild
Groups of up to 30. Ages 6 and above spend up to 3 hours on a trip through the water cycle. Students learn to recognize some of our living indicators of water quality.

For information on fees or to schedule a tour or field trip, contact the Education Department at (540) 942-9453 or email edu@wildlifecenter.org.