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CASCADES RAPTOR CENTER
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CASCADES RAPTOR CENTER
CRC is a 501c3 non-profit nature center and wildlife hospital founded in 1987 . In its first few years, the educational programs of the Raptor Center only took birds to schools and public events, but in early 1994, CRC moved to its current location on a wooded hillside in southeast Eugene and opened to the public.
Speo, the Burrowing Owl
CRC's Mission is to preserve a healthy, viable population of birds of prey and other wildlife in their natural habitat. To accomplish this, CRC has two primary goals:
Public Education designed to enhance the awareness, respect, appreciation, and care of the earth and all its inhabitants so critical for a balanced and healthy planet. CRC uses live, permanently disabled/non-releasable birds, along with visual media and written material, to create a positive, first-hand experience of wildlife through
? on-site visits to the Nature Center
? off-site presentations and exhibits at schools and public events.
Rehabilitation and release of orphaned, sick, and injured wildlife, primarily birds of prey (raptors), using the highest standards of medical treatment and care, and the best facilities possible.
Our Philosophy - Because we are both an educational and a medical facility , we have some important distinctions to make. We conduct public education activities both and on and off-premises. The Nature Center is open to members and the general public four days a week, as well as by appointment or for field trips and group tours on other days. We also have an annual Earth Day Open House in the Spring, when the whole facility is open to visitors. However, only the non-releasable birds are viewable; the rehabilitation birds are never on display, even to their finders who might want to see how they are doing or to volunteers' family or other visitors.
The birds come first at CRC , and the hospital patients are stressed by contact with humans. Staff interaction with them is kept to a bare minimum and the hospital, mouse and chick buildings, and outside rehabilitation cages are always off limits to visitors. Besides the stress to the birds from human contact, it is also against the law to display wildlife undergoing rehabilitation. The Nature Center's permanent resident, non-releasable birds are held under special permits for educational purposes and their large outside enclosures allow them to keep a distance from visitors.
Injured, sick, or orphaned birds are brought to us by members of the public, police officers or other government staff, or referred by other wildlife rehabilitators. We have a responsibility, both to the birds and the people who bring them in, to provide the best care possible - everyone associated with CRC takes seriously this important responsibility. As a result of the trust we have established we see and treat between 150 and 200 sick, injured and orphaned birds each year.
Why do these birds need our help?
The vast majority have been the losers in some confrontation with humans or our way of life: these birds are in collisions with vehicles; hit windows or come down chimneys; hit power lines; tangle in fishing line, or barbed wire, electric, or other fencing; are poisoned by rodenticides or pesticides; are shot; are caught in leg hold traps; babies have their nest sites destroyed through construction, landscaping, or logging; for lack of natural habitat, their parents have chosen dangerous nest sites; or young birds are simply picked up when they shouldn't be.
Eagle release
A happy day for everybody!
Photo by Owen Garitty
What does a rehabilitator do?
Our trained volunteers are the emergency team on intake: stopping any bleeding, treating for shock, doing physical examinations, immobilizing fractures, starting an antibiotic regime, as necessary.
We are laboratory technicians: drawing and analyzing blood for anemia, parasites, signs of disease, or starvation; analyzing fecal samples for parasites, bacteria, blood; radiographing for fractures or other problems. Our generous veterinarians donate their services for surgery and general supervision.
CRC volunteers are the nurses: changing bandages, cleaning wounds, giving shots or other medications. We are the dieticians: calculating the calories necessary for growth and healing, presenting the food in a way best assimilated or most conducive to self-feeding, making sure our patients are eating. (We're also the farmers: raising the mice and rats we feed the birds! And the custodians - cleaning and cleaning and cleaning!) We are the physical therapists, providing passive or active range of motion exercises for stiff joints or weakened muscles after a broken bone has healed.Throughout and overall, we are the naturalists, utilizing knowledge of species identification, normal habitat, diet, and behavior, as well as nesting, migrating, and foraging habits.
And, finally, we have the difficult decisions to make: can we release a bird? Is its recovery complete enough to ensure a successful return to the wild - able to fly, catch food, find and defend a territory, attract a mate, reproduce, and migrate, as appropriate to its species? This work is done under permits from the Oregon Department of Fish & Wildlife and US Fish & Wildlife Service, including those required for working with eagles, and threatened and endangered species. CRC has three licensed rehabilitators, with combined experience of over 40 years in the field; our volunteer staff veterinarian has over 15 years in wildlife rehabilitation and medicine, particularly with raptors.
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