WAYNESBORO, Va. (WHSV) – After 41 years Ed Clark, the President and Co-Founder of the Wildlife Center of Virginia in Waynesboro, is preparing to retire in March. WHSV spoke with Clark about his life’s work with the center and how it grew into the internationally recognized success it is today.

“My personal love of wildlife came because I had wonderful mentors and the opportunity to spend a lot of time outdoors as a kid. It taught me a lot about life, taught me a lot about the environment and the natural world around us, and gave me a sense of responsibility to take care of it,” said Clark.

In 1982 the Wildlife Center of Virginia was born out of a conversation between four friends: Dr. Stuart Porter, a veterinarian and former director of the Blue Ridge Community College veterinary technician program, his wife Terry, a veterinary technician, Ed Clark, who had a background in conservation policy, and Clark’s former wife, Nancy Sheffield, who was also a veterinary technician.

“Members of the public found out Dr. Porter had been a zoo veterinarian and was very skilled and knowledgeable in wildlife medicine. So people were bringing him wild animals at the college but unfortunately, he didn’t have any place to put them,” said Clark. “Within five weeks after that conversation the Wildlife Center of Virginia was incorporated and the rest is history.”

Clark said at the time the four of them had no idea how far things would go.

“There are times even today that I look around me and can’t believe that we have come as far as we have. Going on 42 years now we’ve treated nearly 100,000 wild patients. We started with four volunteers and no budget and we now have 36 full-time employees,” said Clark.

At 72 years old and with the Wildlife Center entering a period of growth and expansion that will likely take several years to complete he felt the time was right to step away. However, he said it is always difficult to walk away from something you love.

“I get to do a lot of fun things, there’s no question about that. Releasing bald eagles is something that is a pretty rare experience and something that I’ve done scores of times and every single one makes my heart stop, there’s just nothing like it,” said Clark.

Over the last four decades, Clark helped mold the Wildlife Center into the leading teaching hospital for wildlife medicine in the world.

“We have students coming to us from every vet school in the United States and Canada and students and professionals from 40 other countries come to our facility in Waynesboro to learn from the best,” Clark said.

Over the years Clark and the wildlife center played a prominent on three TV shows: Virginia Outdoors, Animal Planet’s weekly series Wildlife Emergency, and the current PBS show Untamed which has won four Telly awards and was nominated for an Emmy.

Clark said these shows all helped spread the word about the Wildlife Center and its mission.

“The mission of the wildlife center is not fixing broken animals. The mission of the wildlife center is teaching the world to care about and care for wildlife and the environment and that’s what we do every single day in everything we do,” Clark said.

Clark said that education has always been the most important part of the Wildlife Center.

“For me, the greatest satisfaction comes when somebody will say to me ‘Ya know I learned…’ whatever it was from the Wildlife Center. ‘I learned to love eagles, I learned to keep my cat indoors, I learned to take care of the environment’ Whatever it is, teaching is really my passion. . It’s the purpose of our organization and everything we do including our medical work is all about that. So while we’re caring for 100 thousand patients, while doing that we are training the next generation of veterinarians and wildlife rehabilitators,” Clark said.

As the Wildlife Center moves toward its future Clark said there are new challenges it has to deal with.

“Reaching people and getting their attention in this ocean of technology and stimulation and information is becoming increasingly a challenge because on social media there is just so much misinformation and frankly just garbage out there about wildlife. People instead of calling experts a lot of times will find an injured animal and go to Facebook where they don’t always get good information,” Clark said.

Another challenge for the center is adjusting to the impacts that large wind farms and solar arrays have on raptors and other types of flying wildlife.

As he prepares to retire Clark said all the Wildlife Center’s work has been a team effort since the beginning.

“The thing that gives me the greatest amount of pride is the group of people with whom I’ve been blessed to associate with. We have from the absolute beginning had people who cared deeply, who were highly committed, highly motivated, highly skilled, and working together we have made this difference,” said Clark.

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