It was a warm, late summer day in 2020. Like many people, I was working from home, sitting in my living room, laptop on my knees, coffee at my side. Suddenly I heard a very loud THUNK in the vicinity of our back door. I sprang up and ran to the back of the house....
Category: Uncategorized
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Summit Highlights Beaver Impact
This April I attended the California Beaver Summit, an event focused on the positive impact of beavers on the California landscape and their key role in ecological restoration projects. As a wildlife rehabilitator the information on managing common human/beaver conflicts was especially useful. The full summit is available to watch. I found these three presentations...
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2020 Annual Members Meeting
IWRC held our 2020 Annual Members Meeting Oct 17. A full recording of the meeting is available to members (log in). President Adam Grogan provided a brief presentation on our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and our other activities this year. Active committees, including Membership; Course Development; Executive; International; Finance; and Development, provided brief updates...
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Spotlight on New Staff Member, Micayla Harland
Micayla is our new behind the scenes bookkeeper. Welcome Micayla! Please share an early/childhood experience that was pivotal to your personal relationship to wildlife. I grew up part-time (child of divorce) on a small hobby farm in the Manitoba prairies. We had a couple horses and a few dozen head of cattle. One memory of...
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It’s Mental Health Awareness Month
Did you know that May is Mental Health Awareness Month? We here at the IWRC have recently put forth a few resources promoting mental health in wildlife rehabilitation, such as our blog post on Self-Caring During COVID-19 and our Going Home Checklist. As we can all imagine, due to the emotion, long hours, and stress...
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Self-Caring During COVID-19
As COVID-19 (Coronavirus) continues to spread, it can be a stressful and daunting time. Especially as the baby season is here for some and closely around the corner for others. Many of us have had to temporarily remove volunteers from our workforce, while balancing more-so limited funds and an increased workload. However, we must always make...
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The Cost of Self-Deployment:
Deciding how to help during the Australian Brush Fires (and other similar emergencies) Since news of the devastating Australia bush fires broke in late December there has been an outpouring of support as well as a wave of global horror and sorrow. For many, including those involved in wildlife rehabilitation or care, this crisis...
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Spotlight on Max Lipman
Q&A with Max: Please share an early/childhood experience that was pivotal to your personal relationship to wildlife. I was very fortunate to have outdoorsy parents. However, until my first internship with a wildlife hospital, I was completely naive to the field of wildlife rehabilitation. When I found out about it, I was instantly intrigued. I...
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IWRC Australia Letter Writing Campaign
The issue: As you may know, the wildfires in Victoria, New South Wales, and Western Australia have consumed large areas and devastated local wildlife populations in the millions — with estimates of the animal death toll at over a billion individuals. Wildlife rehabilitators are working tirelessly to triage, aid, and hopefully rehabilitate these animals. This...
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Australia
There are no words in any human vocabulary to describe the unimaginable horror as Australia burns. There are emotions, deep-stabbing pains of grief, voids and the vacancy of loss, infinite vacuum of pain, but no words. Not one living thing consumed by this hell brought on by human greed and antipathy deserves this fate. I...