“Since the 1930s, residents have relied on the Wildlife Care Center—the busiest rehabilitation center in the region—to treat injured and orphaned native wildlife and educate the public on how to humanely resolve human/animal conflicts,” said Stuart Wells, Executive Director of Bird Alliance of Oregon. “The Center is open 365 days a year and has provided over 100,000 native birds and other wildlife with a second chance at life in the wild. However, the current Wildlife Care Center, located on NW Cornell Road, is too small for our dedicated wildlife rehabilitation team to meet ever-increasing demand, and is inaccessible by public transit. The region needs a larger, more technologically advanced center to provide our wildlife patients with modern care and treatment. We are excited to have found the Care Center a new home.”
Bird Alliance of Oregon expects the new building will more than double the size of the current Center and will provide capacity to treat more than 6,000 animals a year, helping to better respond to large influxes of patients during breeding season and extreme weather events. The site’s location on one of the city’s main arteries will make it easier to access for a larger number of people, making it more feasible for community members to bring animals in need of treatment and connect to the educational resources.
The site, like many other undeveloped urban plots, is a former landfill, used as a rock quarry and later filled with rubble from the construction of I-205. Bird Alliance of Oregon has advocated for decades on policies to remediate brownfield sites like this one and put them back to productive use. Now, the organization will be part of the solution by turning this open space into a destination that truly benefits the community, the local environment, and the region’s wildlife.
“We are so excited to join the NE 82nd community,” said Debbie Elliott, President of the Bird of Alliance of Oregon Board of Directors. “For decades we’ve worked with East Portland partners and community members on issues like climate resilience, increasing the urban tree canopy, peacefully coexisting with wildlife, and increasing access to nature. Now, we have the opportunity to work as neighbors alongside this vibrant and caring community.”
“The 82nd Avenue Coalition is thrilled about the Bird Alliance of Oregon’s purchase of the property across 82nd Avenue from McDaniel High School,” shared Zachary Lauritzen, 82nd Avenue Coalition Manager. “Their vision of trails, parks, and other community projects all connecting to a new wildlife hospital directly aligns with our goals of a green, activated, and vibrant 82nd Avenue. We welcome the Bird Alliance of Oregon to 82nd Avenue and are excited about the community services it will provide to the corridor and beyond.”
Bird Alliance of Oregon is excited to already have projects with community partners in the works. Thanks to a grant from the Portland Clean Energy Fund (PCEF), APANO, Bonneville Environmental Foundation, and Bird Alliance of Oregon are working together to install a two-acre community solar array on a sloped section of the south end of the property. The solar array will help offset utility costs for around 200 low income community members for the next twenty years as well as power the new Wildlife Care Center, providing tangible community benefits to local residents and the environment. Bird Alliance of Oregon received a separate PCEF grant to restore native habitat across the property, including planting hundreds of native trees, and pollinator habitat underneath and around the solar panels, making the space beneficial for both people and wildlife.
The purchase of this property completes a 10+ year search for a location to build a new Wildlife Care Center (WCC). Countless staff, board, volunteers, and donors, some of whom are no longer with us, helped make this dream a reality. “We wouldn’t have this property without the tireless efforts of Bob Sallinger, Bird Alliance of Oregon’s former Conservation and WCC Director,” shared Micah Meskel, Assistant Director of Urban Conservation. “Bob was the Wildlife Care Center’s visionary, biggest advocate, and the driving force behind our efforts to build a new hospital. We also want to recognize Deb Sheaffer, our former veterinarian who helped shape the Wildlife Care Center’s work, and McKenzie Joslin Snyder, our former wildlife rehabilitator who cared for thousands of patients. While Bob, Deb, and McKenzie are no longer with us, we know that their legacy will live on in the tens of thousands of animals that fly free because of their work.”
This will be Bird Alliance of Oregon’s second Portland metro area location. We will continue to operate from our statewide headquarters in Northwest Portland, a beloved 172-acre wildlife sanctuary on NW Cornell Road. Bird Alliance of Oregon also stewards a 91-acre wildlife sanctuary in Sandy, OR that hosts overnight education programs, and a 314-acre wildlife sanctuary on the central Oregon coast.
