Statesman Journal April 14, 2001

 

And she wants to put it in Salem.

 

There are already a few wildlife centers scattered around the region.  The Audobon Society of Portland has a wildlife care center, and there are centers in Corvallis and Molalla.

 

"But we don't have one in Salem and we're the state capital," Mesa said.

 

At this point, Mesa's idea is still in the embryonic stages.  Last month, she formed a nonprofit organization and is setting up a board of directors and a legal status to receive donations.  A mountain of work lies ahead, but Mesa, 38, says she's up for it.

 

She gets up at dawn to surf the internet before her 5-year-old daughter rises, researching grants and other funding options and learning what she can about existing centers.  She has picked the brains of other center directors in the region.

 

And when she's not working part time as a clinical assistant at Dallas Family Medicine, she's often driving across town to rescue a goose tangled in fishing line, an abused cat with a blow dart in it or a raccoon hit by a car.

 

She's had her share of successess in nursing animals back to health, such as Nikita the swan, whom she picked up from Salem Emergency Clinic on Christmas Day 1999.  The swan had a compound fracture of one elbow, and several vets told Mesa it would never fly again.

 

But after a six-hour operation donated by a veterinarian friend, a two-month recovery period in Mesa's bathroom and six months of rehab, Nikita was airborne again.  She now lives on a pond Mesa built for her.

 

Such successes would be more common with a center, Mesa said.  "Me by myself running around the city and trying to save all the animals is just impossible."

 

Salem does have a loosely knit group of about seven licensed wildlife rehabilitators who work from their homes and combien forces with nearly 20 volunteers.  Together they're known as the Salem Wildlife Rehabilitation Association.  The city also has two employees - one full time, one half time - at a field office of the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

 

But the workload is massive, and all agree that a wildlife center with a core full-time staff and a healthy complement of volunteers would be a boon.

 

"It's a good idea," said Will High, assistant district wildlife biologist at ODFW's Salem field office.  "The wilflife rehabbers in the area are all stretched pretty thin."

 

High has jurisdiction over all wildlife issues in most of Polk, Marion, Linn and Benton counties.

 

Bob Sallinger, wildlife center director at the Audobon Society in Portland, said his organization sometimes gets calls from Salem.

 

Most centers focus on one of two things: rehabilitating sick, injured or orphaned wildlife in preparation for a return to the wild, or caring for neglected or abondoned domestic animals with a view to finding good homes for them.

 

Few centers - and none in Oregon - do both, partly because of permitting requirements and partly because of the financial demands.

 

Mesa wants to take on both missions, which has caused something of a rift between her and some of the local rehabbers.  They want to see any center in Salem dedicated exclusively to wildlife.

 

"If this place really pans out, that'd be great," said Joni Brewer, president of the Salem Wildlife Rehabilitation Association.  "But we'll have to see."

 

Mesa says she does not want to have to deny help to any animal in need.  She grew up on a farm with wild and domestic animals around her, and has dealt with both in volunteer work.

 

That's why she called her nonprofit organization the Oregon Animal Care Center.  If "wildlife" had been in the name, she would have been restricted accordingly.

 

Mesa has passed ODFW tests and wants to gather at 20 volunteers and raise funds for a suitable property.  She has her eye on 6.8 acres west of Salem but would need about $50,000 just to get a loan.  That could be a starting point for a center that would focus initially on wildlife, she said.

 

Ultimately, she would like something much bigger and more diverse.

 

"I keep my eye on the prize," she said.