Nearly a century after starting a wildlife rehabilitation program in Northwest Portland, the Bird Alliance of Oregon is preparing to expand its footprint with a new site across town.
The nonprofit, formerly known as Portland Audubon, will still be headquartered in offices nestled among hiking trails and trees surrounded by Forest Park. But within a few years, the birds and other animals it cares for will be relocated to a vacant former landfill across Northeast 82nd Avenue from McDaniel High School.
The Bird Alliance purchased the 12.5-acre site for about $5 million and expects to invest another $20 million on an animal hospital, a 2-acre solar array, and native habitat restoration. Also in the plans is a network of trails that would connect with trails developed by the neighboring Dharma Rain Zen Center. Bird Alliance staff say the paths will connect across 82nd Avenue to Glenhaven Park and will eventually join an extended trail system city planners are exploring at Rose City Golf Course.
“We’re really looking to design a hub that connects those communities, and we’re really excited about how these physical connections will help facilitate long-lasting programmatic partnerships,” said Micah Meskel, assistant director of urban conservation at the Bird Alliance.
Bird Alliance of Oregon staff visit the site of a planned wildlife hospital and nature sanctuary at 2800 N.E. 82nd. Ave, Portland, Ore., in this provided photo.
Courtesy Bird Alliance of Oregon
Plans call for the solar array to power both the wildlife care center and to offset electricity costs for 200 low-income community members, with financial support from the Portland Clean Energy Fund, APANO (previously Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon) and the Bonneville Environmental Foundation.
“We see this as transformative, not only for Bird Alliance of Oregon but also for the broader community we’re going to be neighbors with,” Stuart Wells, Bird Alliance executive director, told OPB.
Wells said he also hopes to offer internships to McDaniel High School students at the wildlife rehab hospital — an opportunity that could be available for this year’s freshmen before they graduate.
Zachary Lauritzen, manager of the 82nd Avenue Coalition, said in a statement that the business and residential advocacy group is thrilled with Bird Alliance’s plans.
“Their vision of trails, parks, and other community projects all connecting to a new wildlife hospital directly aligns with our goals of a green, activated, and vibrant 82nd Avenue,” Lauritzen said.
The Bird Alliance chose its future animal hospital site after a yearslong search.
Its current site, built in the 1980s, is too small to meet demand. The Bird Alliance regularly has to house some animals offsite on Sauvie Island because of space constraints. And while the nonprofit’s headquarters property in Northwest Portland stretches across more than 170 acres, it’s too hilly and forested to develop. It’s also located on a curving stretch of Cornell Road that’s challenging to access on public transit.
“This new location, a flat 12-and-a-half acre site, will allow us to design a building and outdoor caging that really maximizes functionality, efficiency and the effectiveness of our wildlife care program,” Meskel said. It’s also near one of Portland’s busiest transit corridors and two interstates.
Wells said the Bird Alliance expects to build a structure more than double the size of its current 1,200-square-foot wildlife care center. That location serves 4,000 animals a year, and the nonprofit is preparing to care for more than 6,000 animals each year after moving across town. The new location should also be better equipped for sudden influxes of wildlife during breeding season or extreme weather events.
The Bird Alliance has operated wildlife care centers since the 1930s and expects to be in its new location ahead of the centennial of those programs. In addition to maintaining its headquarters in Northwest Portland, it will also continue to steward a 91-acre wildlife sanctuary in Sandy and a 336-acre wildlife sanctuary on the central Oregon Coast.