Nature center to host Wildlife in Need seminar

Mark your calendars, wildlife lovers: the Carbon County Environmental Education Center will host a seminar Thursday night on how you can help distressed animals.

The Summit Hill-based center’s chief naturalist, Susan Gallagher, will speak about Wildlife in Need, a statewide dispatch system consisting of volunteers who transport injured, sick and orphaned wildlife to local rehabilitation centers.

The event will give potential couriers an introduction to Wildlife in Need and an opportunity to learn how they can get involved.

Wildlife in Need volunteers don’t take part in risky rescues; their focus is instead on picking up already contained birds and small mammals and taking them to places like the education center, where the animal can mend.

The program, Gallagher said, ensures afflicted animals are treated as soon as possible, unburdening people who don’t know how to help them.

“We consider wildlife rehabilitation, the service that we offer, to be as much a service to the public as it is to the animals that we care for,” Gallagher said. “We want to help those people just as much as we want to help the animals.”

Thursday’s talk will begin at 6 p.m. and will be held at the center, located at 151 E. White Bear Drive in Summit Hill.

Anyone over 18 years old can join Wildlife in Need, and is welcome to attend.