Wildlife Center of Virginia Blog

Early in 2012, we admitted three nestling Great Horned Owls.  While it was a pleasure to care for all three, GHOW #12-0317 was definitely the most memorable to me.

A couple of months ago, I got an email from Nicci Wright, wildlife rehabilitation manager of FreeMe Wildlife Rehabilitation, in Johannesburg, South Africa.  She said that the organization, which treats over 10,000 wild animals each year, has been in existence for 15 years.  Yet, FreeMe was struggling to break out of its old ways of doing things and move toward the next level of excellence in both its wildlife care and its public education programs.  However, they did not know how to start.

We arrived at Zoar State Forest and were a little early, so we stood around for a bit, while everyone who wanted to see the release arrived. Once everyone was present, Wildlife Center President Ed Clark drove his truck out into the middle of an old cornfield owned by the forestry department, and opened the back of the truck. Ed then gave us some information on how the Wildlife Center was started, some of the work done at the Center, and where this Bald Eagle was rescued.

In August of 2012, I got a message on my Facebook page inviting me to Poland to speak at two related conferences which were scheduled to take place in just six weeks. The first conference, called Konkordia III, was to be a gathering of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) for the purpose of increasing and enhancing their effectiveness and efficiency. The second gathering, called the European Forum for New Ideas (EFNI), was a much larger conference; the gathering included NGOs, private industry and business sector, and government institutions.