New Mexico Wildlife Center

The idea began with a quiet, unannounced visit.  During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, H/3 Foundation’s founder and chairman toured NMWC without fanfare – and left convinced that one targeted investment could transform care for injured wildlife across the region.  That conviction transformed into a mission-critical grant to endow a permanent, full-time wildlife veterinarian and to renovate flight cages for the Center’s resident raptors.

Five years later, H/3 has contributed approximately half a million dollars and counting.  NMWC now believes it has become the only wildlife rehabilitation facility in New Mexico with a full-time wildlife veterinarian on staff – a position H/3 created in 2021 and has sustained ever since.  Annual patient intake climbed to a record 1,085 last year, representing more than 160 species.  The Center has become a statewide medical-referral and training hub, accepting advanced cases that smaller organizations cannot treat.

Beyond direct patient care, the H/3-funded veterinarian trains other wildlife veterinarians and rehabilitators across the Southwest, lecturing on avian orthopedics and ophthalmology at regional and national conferences.  NMWC has also expanded its internship and veterinary-externship programs, and launched a multi-year avian head-trauma study.  The results show up animal-by-animal – a red-tailed hawk released after 245 days in care, a Northern Harrier returned to the wild after nearly a year, and multiple one-eyed owls successfully released.