Blue Ridge Wildlife Center Acknowledges a Quarter of a Century of Work in Wildlife Preservation & Human Education

The Blue Ridge Wildlife Center (BRWC) released its Annual Report for the calendar year 2025 in the early winter months of 2026. The report in the BRWC quarterly newsletter The Ridgeline features an introductory overview by BRWC Execuctive Director Annie Bradfield. She noted a landmark anniversary for the Boyce, Clarke County based wildlife rescue center: “In 2025, Blue Ridge Wildlife Center marked 25 years of caring for and protecting native wildlife.

“What began as a small education effort has grown into a regional center for wildlife medicine, research, education, and professional training, grounded in  the understanding that the health of wildlife, people, and the environment are deeply interconnected,” Bradfield asserted. And it is an assertion based in experience and an open-minded approach to that experience.

“Each year, thousands of injured, ill, and orphaned animals arrive at our doors,” Bradfield observed of the catalyst for that experience. “Their stories reveal patterns of human impact, envoironmental change, and opportunity. Over the past quarter century we have learned that treating individual animals is only the beginning. What truly creates change is what we learn from them, how we apply that knowledge, and how we share it with others.

BRWC Executive Director Annie Bradfield introduced the 2025 Annual Report with a nod to the Center’s quarter of a century in, not only saving wildlife lives, but learning from that work to hopefully reduce its future need as we learn from experience. Royal Examiner Photos Roger Bianchini from The Ridgeline.

“This annual report is organized around the core pillars of our work. Together, they tell the story of how BRWC responds to harm, builds solutions, and works toward a future where fewer animals need our help at all,” Executive Director Bradfield concludes in her Annual Report’s introductory message.

The BRWC’s Annual Report notes that it received nearly 50,000, 49,686 to be precise, Hotline Calls in 2025. The Center’s home base of Clarke County didn’t make that top five regional county calls list, the Center noted. Those top five county Hotline calls included Loudoun (843), Frederick (697), Fairfax (422), Fauquier (361), and Warren (318).

The next 19-plus pages of the Annual Report are broken into five interrelated categories. They are:

Wildlife Medicine — “Why animals arrive, We treated 4,005 patients of 166 species in 2025”;

One Health Research — “What we learn — tick-borne diseases.” It is noted here that in 2025 BRWC was involved in 10 Research Studies, one of which, ‘Eastern Cottontails as hosts for ticks infected with various diseases that can be transmitted to other animals and humans’, was published in the Journal of Medical Entomology last year);

Rehab and Release are the goals for every wildlife admission. But if 100% is unnatainable, the 58% to 80% numbers for those surviving the first 24 hours is promising.

Wildlife Rehabilitation — “How we return animals to the wild: Release Rates (for patients surviving the first 24 hours of care): Amphibians 82%; Birds 58%; Mammals 78%; Reptiles 80%.”

Professional Training — “How we build capacity: We are very excited to have launched our expanded professional training program in 2025, adding much needed, well-trained, talent to the wildlife conservation workforce! We also welcomed 13 Summer Rehabilitation Interns.” It is reported those interns provided over 7,000 hours to the BRWC’s workforce.

Public Education — “How we prevent future harm: “In 2025 we presented 78 programs and events reaching over 5,000 people.

Professional Training and Volunteer Contributions are a welcome one-two expansion of operational programs and public involvement efforts.

Donor dependent

The BRWC thanks all its volunteers, donors, and business associates for making it possible for the Center’s work to continue. It should be noted that the Center is a 501(c)3 non-profit that “relies on private donations exclusively.”

The Center’s informational page at the end of its Winter 2025 The Ridgeline newsletter points out that, “Wildlife Centers may not receive payments to treat animals, nor do they receive state or federal funding. Contributions are tax deductible.”

Contact Info

The Blue Ridge Wildlife Center is located at 106 Island Farm Lane, Boyce, Virginia in Clarke County. The Center’s Wildlife Hotline is (540) 837-9000. The Center’s e-mail is <info@blueridgewildlifectr.org> and its web access is <blueridgewildlifectr.org>

The BRWC is located on the Burwell-Van Lennup Foundation (BVLF) property in Boyce, Clarke County. “The mission of the BVLF includes preserving the diverse ecology of this land, protecting wildlife, and environmental education. BVLF generously provides the land to BRWC at no cost,” they report.

Here’s to the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center’s and its supporters efforts in 2025 to rescue, learn from, and pass on the knowledge they accumulate in the performance of their wildlife saving efforts, and to many more years to follow.

Expanding Public Education of behavioral patterns of both wildlife and the humans they share the planet with is a primary goal of the BRWC.