And the timeline Ogden city officials are sticking to is unreasonable.
Early this morning I received the following email from my friends at Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah (WRCNU). I first learned about this devastating development yesterday afternoon.
Surprises Are Not Always Good
We have been given a surprise that we did not see coming. We have been notified that we have until September 6, 2023 to vacate the Carol Conroy Browning Animal Shelter, which was built specifically for animal care and humane education. Ogden City has generously allowed Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah (WRCNU) use of the facility that we have called home for 12 years. Ogden City Administration has initiated plans to demolish the building in order to expand George S. Eccles Dinosaur Park.
We are the only licensed wildlife rehabilitation center in Northern Utah and the largest center of our kind in the state. We provide people throughout the region with a place to bring sick, injured, or orphaned wildlife in need of aid. Our mission is to rehabilitate and release wildlife back into its natural habitat and educate our community.
Since our inception in 2009, we have treated over 34,000 wildlife patients with the help of 195,050 volunteer hours. We receive no State or Federal funding for any of our work and rely solely on community support and donations to treat and care for all of our patients. More than 91% of our donations go directly to animal care and treatment.
The timeline that we have been given to relocate is unreasonable. Any move we make involves obtaining new funding to acquire a facility. In order for us to provide care for wildlife, this property must meet local zoning regulations and specific State and Federal guidelines. Without the services of WRCNU, thousands of patients will have to be euthanized and future patients, with no place to go, will be left to suffer and die.
We call upon Ogden City officials to consider extending our timeline so we can create an exit strategy that will allow us to keep our doors open. We need this extension by April 30, 2023 or we will be forced to shut our doors to new patients as we enter into what is typically our busiest time of year. Seventy-nine percent (79%) of our patients arrive between April and September.
Our commitment to Utah native wildlife and the public has never wavered, even now with the challenge of finding a new home. We would appreciate prospects on potential facilities and/or property that we can consider as a short-term solution. This temporary facility will help to give us time to kick off a capital campaign for a new and better facility we can call our own.
We are not giving up on our mission, will you JOIN us?
For suggestions and inquiries, please contact us by email at savewrcnu@wrcnu.org
To get the latest updates on this ongoing journey that we are on…you can follow us on Facebook, or if this was forwarded to you, join our E-newsletter by leaving your name and email.
The loss of WRCNU would be devastating for wildlife in northern Utah. This is the fledgling Short-eared Owl I cut out of barbed wire in Box Elder County. He was delivered to WRCNU where he was rehabbed for months before it was eventually determined that he couldn’t be released back into the wild so he now lives a pampered life as an education bird for HawkWatch International. They call him Galileo.
Whenever possible WRCNU releases their patients back into the wild. Over the years many thousands of birds and mammals have been returned to the wild by WRCNU. That will all end unless WRCNU can be saved, which would require Ogden city officials to reconsider the timing of their deadline which would allow WRCNU sufficient time to develop an exit strategy that would allow them to relocate and survive.
The purpose of today’s edition of Feathered Photography is to request support for WRCNU from my readers. That support could be provided in the following ways:
- Contacting Ogden city officials and requesting a more reasonable timeline. Ogden City Council members can be contacted here.
- Mayor Mike Caldwell can be contacted at mikecaldwell@ogdencity.com
- Financial support to help WRCNU weather this very difficult transition.
- Suggestions of potential facilities and/or property that they can consider as a short-term solution.
- Spreading the word, in any way you deem feasible and potentially effective.
Even moral support would help. WRCNU hangs in the balance which has to be demoralizing for DaLyn and Buz and all of their volunteers.
Ron.
PS – Already this morning (8:20 AM) I know that one city council member has responded to an email from one of my readers in a very positive way. Since then they’ve responded to me and to others in an equally positive manner. Encouraging, but apparently it’s the mayor who makes the actual decision.
Thank you again Ron. We love you.
💕
I travel to SLC area often to see my kids/grands from Eugene OR. This situation makes me angry, even though I’m not local to you. Wildlife hospitals are as important as human-serving hospitals IMHO. I wonder if the Ogden city council would give six months to a human hospital to vacate property they’d like to make into a human playground? Idk… the hostility (stupidity?) towards wildlife, due to human greed, short sightedness and disconnection from the wonders of nature, appears to be increasing. Sigh. I did email the city council.
Thank you Ron for your support. You are a good egg.
So are you my friend.
I send emails to the mayor and city council and subscribed to their newsletter. Thanks for the heads up.
Good. Thanks, Pat.
I emailed the city council, current mayor and the two new candidates for this year and got a response from candidate, Angel Castillo who seems to be really interested in how her and her team can help this organization! She is asking for specifics on how to best help and I am wondering if you’d like to be connected with them! Let me know!
Megan, I’d be interested in what she had to say but the best way for her to learn “how she can help” is for her to contact Dalyn and Buz at WRCNU.
Thank you Ron! I appreciate the info. Do you by chance have email addresses I can send her too? All I can find on the centers website is their info email. If not, no worries!
THANKS FOR THIS NOTIFICATION ! I’ve sent letters to the Ogden mayor,
city council members, and a small monetary contribution ( wish it could be
more ). Please keep your FP posse apprised of developments………
Thanks very much for ALL of your efforts, Kris. Hopefully it’ll make a difference. And yes, I’ll report back on any significant developments.
Hiss and spit.
Donation made.
Clear from Australia! Thanks very much, EC.
Update: I just sent my email to all seven member of the City Council, as well as the seven member of the City Council staff.
I am also contacting my local Wildlife Shelter for ideas to help.
Good. Thank you, Karen.
Ron I will compose and send an email to the Council today.
It might be helpful if the local television media was made aware of the situation. Perhaps they could do story on what is happening and generate some pressure on the council to extend their deadline. Of course, it would have to be done quickly to get the ball rolling before April 30, 2023.
Thank you, Karen. A story like that might be very helpful.
Oh this kind of bureaucratic BS just kills me!! You’d think the association the city of Ogden has with WRCNU would make for excellent public/community relations, and the council and city staff would want to be very careful in its handling of such a valuable community (and regional) resource. Unfortunately, bad decisions get made every day. 🤬
Donation to WRCNU and letter to the city going out forthwith! And thanks, Ron, for sharing this news.
Yes, “you’d think”, Chris. Thanks very much.
Ron, all:
The WRCNU Facebook page has replied to some folks there, suggesting contacting the Mayor. Quote from WRCNU reply:
“ WRCNU needs “TIME”.
The Ogden Mayor is the only one with the power to stop this; he needs to hear your voice.
Mayor Mike Caldwell
mikecaldwell@ogdencity.com
(801) 629-8111”
I am emailing the Mayor.
Me too! One reply I’d gotten from a council member hinted that the mayor was “it”.
Thank you for the contact info, Duane.
I’ve now emailed the mayor too.
I would have thought that situating a theme park full of extinct creatures from the Jurassic era beside a facility dedicated to helping prevent the extinction of still living creatures, some of which, in the case of birds, first appeared in the Jurassic, would be a perfect fit. One wonders what motivation lies behind the Ogden city council’s decision, other than Judy’s observation.
I have contacted the council and have donated to WRCNU.
Maybe there isn’t room in that area for both, Lyle. Thank you for your efforts.
Well I wrote the city council. Hopefully they will not bother to find out if I am local or not. My best wishes for the future of the WRCNU.
Thank you, Michael.
Is this where your follower April Olsen does her work? Devastating news!
Donation on its way, and will contact the City Council via your link. Sending all good thoughts from Ellensburg, WA.
Yes Carolyn, April has been a WRCNU volunteer for years. Her daughter has too.
Your help is much appreciated.
Best wishes to the Wildlife Rehab Center. The link to the City Council takes you right to their email address link, super easy. I wrote a short note and sent it in just a few minutes. I hope the City Council receives a ton of emails and that something can be worked out.
Thank you very much, Sheila. I emailed them too.
Ron – almost forgot. Wanted to thank you and Judy and Marty for the birthday wishes. Had a very nice 85th.
Everett
“Had a very nice 85th.”
Good to know, Everett. You deserve it.
I live in central Illinois not far from the Champaign/Urbana area where the University of Illinois Veterinary College engages in wildlife care. The Veterinary College in Utah is located in Logan (about an hour away from the current facility). Has anyone looked into coordinating wildlife care with the veterinary college in Utah? What about a GoFundMe account to construct a new facility elsewhere. I agree the town needs to extend its deadline in order for plans to be considered and implemented. Wildlife should not have to suffer for dinosaurs.
“Wildlife should not have to suffer for dinosaurs.”
An interesting way to put it, Cindy.
Thanks for the suggestions. Buz Marthaler, cofounder of WRCNU, follows my blog so I’m pretty sure he’ll see what you wrote.
Very worthwhile cause Ron. What a shame that they want to close this very valuable facility. I cannot think of anything more needed than what they provide. In the Phoenix area we have Liberty Wildlife who has save thousands of birds and animals over many years with quite a few coming from our Prescott area.
Isn’t the Galileo saving what got you into an argument with a rancher who apparently would not have cut his fence to save him?
“Isn’t the Galileo saving what got you into an argument with a rancher who apparently would not have cut his fence to save him?”
Yes, it was Everett. This is what he said to me when I told him I’d cut the fence: “You cut the fence for an owl? We hit them with our vehicles all the time”.
As usual, like the GSL, the natural world sucks hind tit to potential $$$. 🙁
Yup.