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Dear Friends,
Today marks exactly one year since the pandemic upended our operations.
This emergency forced us to adapt with resilience, creativity, and team spirit to continue providing the highest standard of care for the thousands of animals we receive in our Wildlife Hospital each year, and to connect thousands of children with nature.
I¡¯m writing to share all that you have made possible over the past 12 months, and to let you know how we are moving forward as we emerge from this crisis.
Your unfailing commitment to our mission and ongoing support has helped WildCare look ahead, more vital than ever.
The Wildlife Hospital adapts to a new reality
In 2020, WildCare¡¯s Wildlife Hospital, designated an essential service during the pandemic, treated nearly 3,500 wild patients ¡ª a 10% increase over the prior year.
This increase in patient intake happened, even as our volunteer roster was eliminated last March due to shelter in place restrictions. By summer, we could bring back only few of our onsite volunteers due to strict COVID-19 protocols.
When new restrictions were imposed this winter, we implemented a "pod" system ¡ª small, alternating groups of workers ¡ª to ensure we could continue our work and keep volunteers and staff safe.
We updated our Wildlife Hospital patient intake procedures with a new gated entry to give the public a safe way to bring us rescued animals.
Meanwhile, demand for our services continued to grow. Our Living with Wildlife Hotline 415-456-7283 saw an astonishing 16% increase in calls from across the Bay Area, the state and the country. In autumn of 2020, we admitted over 160 orphaned baby squirrels to WildCare, a nearly 50% increase over the previous year. We also admitted evacuated animals from a Napa wildlife hospital due to September¡¯s Glass Fire.
And from the beginning of December to date, 166 Pine Siskins, small migratory finches, infected with the deadly Salmonella bacteria have been brought in for care. WildCare launched a comprehensive advocacy campaign to alert people to the deadly outbreak of salmonellosis, and inform them of the need to remove and sanitize bird feeders immediately to protect songbirds.
Why did we see this increase in the need for our programs? With so many people working from home, more people have noticed the impacts of human activity on our wild neighbors. They¡¯ve brought in sick and injured songbirds, orphaned skunks, emaciated raptors, and many other wildlife patients, knowing these animals will receive quality care in a safe, secure environment.
We couldn¡¯t have done it without our volunteers
Despite being forced to cancel our onsite volunteer and internship programs for much of the year, our team of offsite volunteers actually grew!
Over 200 caring members of the WildCare community stepped up to foster record numbers of orphaned wild babies in the summer and fall. These deeply committed volunteers participated in virtual Zoom checkups for our most vulnerable patients, and took online trainings as needed.
In the winter season, once it was safer to do so, we invited a limited number of highly skilled volunteers back into the Wildlife Hospital, restructuring our on-site roles to give them greater responsibilities while maintaining social distancing guidelines.
A new team of intake volunteers also allows our Living with Wildlife Hotline staff additional flexibility and the ability to focus on the most critical calls and inquiries from the public.
Virtual Nature Education: teaching by Zoom
Our Education Director and her Education team met this historic moment by pivoting successfully to 100% remote learning.
Developed with feedback from over 600 classroom teachers and parents, our popular live Nature Van and Nature Hikes programs were revamped into four engaging new 45-minute distance-learning presentations for K-6th graders featuring our Wildlife Ambassadors.
We also offered new virtual hikes through three different Marin habitats, from a Mill Valley redwood forest to the Ring Mountain Open Space Preserve's windswept grasslands.
Despite 12 weeks of school closures in the spring, we were still able to bounce back in the summer and fall with a very popular virtual wildlife summer camp, offered for free to nearly 700 children.
Our four new virtual presentations reached over 7,000 students in 2020 and the beginning of 2021. More than 40% of those students received a full or partial scholarship.
Our program's classroom teachers (and kids!) were delighted with this fun and engaging new interactive presentation. One teacher told us:
"I liked that [the program] was more than just talking "at" the students; there were polls, question time, videos, showing of pictures, so much in a short time that was just packed with information."
¡ª Renea, 5th grade teacher, Prestwood Elementary, Sonoma
Advocating for wildlife
Since the new year began, we¡¯ve successfully sounded the alarm about the lethal Salmonella outbreak affecting our songbirds.
Our new is spreading the word about the dangers to wildlife of tree trimming during nesting season, with the help of nationally-acclaimed graphic artist Michael Schwab.
We¡¯re reaching out to Bay Area residents and businesses with a message of respect for nesting birds and mammals, asking that the public refrain from pruning and trimming trees and shrubs from spring through fall, a critical time for our local wildlife. with WildCare team members Melanie Piazza and Alison Hermance, along with San Rafael arborist Jim Cairnes, discussing ways to avoid harm to nesting birds and their babies.
And the award goes to¡
The community is also recognizing the excellent work WildCare has done and continues to do during this extraordinary time: We recently received an a group of community-minded businesses and organizations headed by the Marin Independent Journal. We were honored to be one of only 12 Marin nonprofits to receive this award.
Moving forward...
As we emerge from the pandemic with a renewed sense of optimism and hope, we are delighted to share some new developments:
We¡¯ve expanded our to four new interns this spring and another four this summer, and continued with a small on-site volunteer program and a sustainable and skilled staffing structure as we once again enter wildlife baby season.
Our interns will work alongside our senior medical team and staff veterinarian to broaden and deepen their knowledge of wildlife rehabilitation techniques.
Our upcoming promises a week of nature exploration and close-up animal encounters, including behind-the-scenes videos from our Wildlife Hospital, to see how Medical Staff cares for our most memorable baby animal patients.
Our 2021 Summer Education Programs are starting to take shape as a blend of at-home activities and on-the-trail learning in small, safe groups.
And we are continuing to work towards building WildCare a new home that will provide the best possible care for local wildlife. We will have more news to share on this front in the coming months.
We couldn¡¯t have made it through this very difficult time without the generosity of friends like you, who have given your support and your ongoing commitment to our mission of helping us all live well with wildlife.
Thank you!
With gratitude and optimism for the work ahead,
Ellyn Weisel
Executive Director
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