Toll Brothers employees Tyler Malovetz and Nancy Myers rake loose stones that make up the floor of an outdoor enclosure at the Mercer County Wildlife Center in Hopewell Township on April 10, 2014.
About a dozen employees from Toll Brothers Inc. in Horsham, Pa., rolled up their sleeves and spent the day volunteering at the Mercer County Wildlife Center on April 10.
Volunteers, led by Toll Brothers volunteer coordinator Tracey Fish, removed winterization, placed new flooring materials in cages, updated the white-tailed deer fawn enclosure and performed other spring-cleaning chores.
The Wildlife Center relies heavily on community partnerships and volunteers.
The center, which provides injured, ill and displaced native wildlife with medical treatment and a temporary refuge before releasing them back into an appropriate wildlife habitat, accepted and treated 2,300 birds, mammals and reptiles in 2013.
Volunteers orientation sessions are held annually in February or March for individuals who would to help care for animals brought to the Hopewell Township facility. The center also needs supplies, volunteer clerical staff and teams of people such as those from Toll Brothers to help maintain the grounds.
The facility includes intensive care and triage units, as well as exterior enclosures that house native wildlife such as raccoons, opossums, foxes, owls and hawks that are further along in their recuperation.
The center is staffed 365 days a year by one full-time licensed wildlife rehabilitator and two full-time assistants, and also relies on the services of seven volunteer veterinarians and more than 100 trained and dedicated volunteers. The center receives more than 13,000 phone calls annually.
The Mercer County Wildlife Center, a facility of the Mercer County Park Commission, is located on Route 29 in Hopewell Township.
For information, call volunteer coordinator Jane Rakos-Yates at (609) 303-0552, ext. 103.
More information is online at mercercounty.org.
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