WILDLIFE REHAB: New Grant campus will become animal nursery

FROM PAGE 1 summer months, and those are orphaned uninjured baby animals,” Jenni said. “They require a lot of care for a long time, but not medical care. All they need is husbandry, and increasingly more space as they grow larger. It’s one thing to have a baby fox, but by the time it gets to be an adult fox it needs quite a bit of space. It needs to wild up.”

To help with the overflow, the WRC purchased a 22-acre farm on Jamaca Avenue with the intent of transforming it into a second animal care facility. A 19th-century farmhouse and several dilapidated outbuildings currently stand on the property, but these will be torn down, and their fieldstone foundations will be incorporated into a new 25,000-square foot structure specifically designed for the care and keeping of young animals.

This rehabilitation campus will have a variety of outdoor caging, including

If you find an injured wild animal (adult or infant), bring it to WRC during operating hours (10 a.m. – 6 p.m. every day of the year); no need to call first. During baby season, the WRC can help determine whether or not the baby animal needs to be brought to rehabilitation, so call before bringing in the young animal: 651-486-9453. Leave a message if staff cannot answer the phone; someone will call back within the hour.

Found a baby squirrel?

If you accidentally cut down a tree or branch containing in-ground pools for waterfowl. There is a strong emphasis on sustainability in its construction, Jenni said. Clean water is particularly important.

“We use a lot of water and it’s not very clean when it comes out,” Jenni said. The facility will have a lot of pools that need to be constantly filtrated. The goal is to make this water use as efficient as possible, recycling millions of gallons of water so that the water does not go back into the ground. The facility will a nest of squirrels, place the entire nest (or just the squirrels if nest was destroyed) at the base of the stump/tree as soon as your trimming activity has ended. Give the mother squirrel time and space to move her babies (keep away from the area, keep children and dogs away, etc.). Squirrels are industrious and keep a few fully-constructed nests in the area. The mother will most likely move the family one at a time to another tree.

You might find baby squirrels laying on the ground with no obvious injuries. If you see also use a rain collection system.

“We won’t really be putting any pressure on the water supply,” Jenni said. “That’s a really big deal out there.”

Jenni said that the building will also use geothermal heating and cooling to maximize energy efficiency. “We think we’ll probably qualify for $1 million incentive through the new Inflation Reduction Act incentives,” he said. “It will really be a very leading-edge building.”

Unlike the Roseville location, this facility will not be open to the public. For an animal preparing to return to a wild life, the less interaction with humans, the better. The Roseville campus will remain the location for animal intake and assessment.

The WRC has been running limited operations at the Grant location since it was purchased in 2019, but the capacity will expand dramatically once no sign of bruising or other injuries, and they are warm and dry, they should be left where they are. Giving mom a chance to retrieve her babies is important to keeping wild families together. its able to take its next steps toward construction. Currently, the center is working on getting all the bureaucratic formalities with the watershed district, Department of Natural Resources, Washington County and other local stakeholders out of the way.

Any squirrels on the ground should be gently picked up and set on an old t-shirt or fleece (tiny squirrel toes can get caught on towels) to keep them off the cold ground. Place two activated hand warmers underneath the fabric. This will provide necessary warmth to the young squirrels. Do not cover the squirrels.

For those wondering, animals ready for release will not be turned loose from the Grant location. WRC staff work as best as they can to return animals to the appropriate habitat, where there are enough resources to support them and far enough away from humans where they won’t get into too much trouble.

“It’s a pretty quiet operation,” Jenni said. “We fit right into the community. The mayor was quoted saying we’d been good neighbors, and we hope to continue that.”

Learn more about the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center at www.wrcmn. org.

If for any reason baby squirrels are still laying on the ground after four hours, or it is after 4:30 p.m., bring them to WRC.

If you cannot get to WRC before close at 6 p.m., bring the squirrels in at dusk and keep them contained and warm overnight. Set up a shoebox with air holes, line it with old t-shirt or fleece, put half the box on a heating pad set to low, and tape the lid shut. It is critical to not give baby squirrels any food or liquids to prevent aspiration pneumonia.

Doors are open from 10 a.m.-6