10 years of healing

As the only paid employee at the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, Lisa Birkle never knows what her job will be from day to day.

She spends her days performing X-rays, suturing and feeding debilitated animals at the center, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary Saturday.

The center’s goal is to mitigate the impact humans have on the native environment through caring for and rehabilitating wildlife that has been affected by vehicles, fishing line and other threats.

One week, Birkle’s facility can be filled with hundreds of peeping ducklings; the next, it may be filled with the oily victims of a tanker spill, or raccoons suffering from an infectious disease.

The work doesn’t stop when she leaves the building; while at home, Birkle takes care of baby hummingbirds.

Birkle was a hairdresser for 17 years before volunteering four days a week after the American Trader oil spill off the coast of Huntington Beach in February 1990.

An emergency center was formed to deal with the more than 1,000 birds affected by 400,000 gallons of Alaskan crude oil that spilled.

Birkle was drawn to the work and soon found herself as one of the first hired employees of the resultant permanent center, which was formed as a joint effort by the Alliance for Wildlife Rehabilitation and the Huntington Beach Wetlands Conservatory.

It now houses treatment, feeding, washing and rehabilitation areas that can treat hundreds of animals at a time, in a new state-of-the-art building that includes hospital facilities, a recovery ward and an educational facility.

The new building will open with a ribbon-cutting at Saturday’s gala.

Major impact

The center accepts animals from all over Orange County and can refer people to organizations that handle nonnative wildlife.

“We have never turned an animal away, ever,” Birkle said.

Most of the county’s animal control departments also bring opossums and other animals to the center, although the Newport Beach agency is the only one to leave funds behind to care for the animals, Birkle said.

Common patients include squirrels, shorebirds and raccoons. Rarities at the center have included an Arctic loon, booby birds, baby coyotes and birds from the Farallon Islands, west of San Francisco.

The center made news worldwide this year for its “drunken” pelicans, who were poisoned by domoic acid and had side effects similar to that of intoxication, as well as pelicans whose wings had been snapped by a still-unknown attacker.

The center is currently working with a pelican that has a gaping wound, most likely due to a fishing hook that was ripped from its torso. The wound is now half the size it was when the pelican arrived at the center; it receives medical attention twice daily, and is under constant surveillance.

Birkle and her team hope to release it early next year.

In two X-rays on one wall, fishing hooks were still visible in cormorants’ digestive systems; once they reach the intestines, Birkle said, the birds have to be put to sleep, as there’s no way to remove them without causing catastrophic damage to the bird.

But there are also success stories, like a young female mallard duck that was found earlier this year with a knife sticking out of it. The duck survived and was released a month later.

Another duck, a Peking whom the center named Patches, was found in Central Park after a tussle with a coyote; its torso was ripped, but it survived and is now a “teaching” animal. As the duck is a nonnative species, the center wasn’t allowed to release it back into nature.

Passion for animals

The center’s water bill alone is $2,000 each month; in addition to keeping its wildlife watered and cages cleaned, the nonprofit washes a minimum of 15 loads of laundry daily. It relies heavily on monetary and in-kind donations from the public.

The center’s wish list includes items like paper towels and toilet paper, bleach, laundry detergent, towels, pillowcases and sheets.

Birkle said the Waterfront Hilton, just up the coast from the center, regularly donates sheets, robes and other items.

“They’ve been very supportive of us,” she said. “Everyone in the community tries to help if they can.”

The organization hosts regular volunteer orientations for those 18 and older; there is also a special program for 16 and 17 years old.

“Everyone here has a passion for animals,” Birkle said. “Everyone’s here because they want to be.”

The center has about 75 volunteers who work four to five hours per week on average, for any of three shifts.

Terri Oba, a seven-year volunteer veterinary technician and Birkle’s right-hand woman, turned down payment but still volunteers three days a week — when she’s not studying birds in Antarctica or the Galapagos.

“I don’t know what I would do without her,” Birkle said.

She said that animals, as they don’t have credit cards or health insurance, still need advocates.

“We’re going to beg, borrow, cheat and steal to get what we need,” Birkle said, smiling. “Where else are they going to go? This is their last chance.”

IF YOU GO

WHAT: Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center’s 10th anniversary

WHEN: 4 to 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: 21900 Pacific Coast Hwy., Huntington Beach

INFO: (714) 374-5587

CANDICE BAKER may be reached at (949) 494-5480 or at [email protected].