Local Community Partners

Community Partner Spotlight August 2012: Aquascape Custom Crafted Pools

Back in 2010, a group of servicemen and women of the US Army Reserve 801st Engineering Company was at the Center to help us build our mountain lion enclosure.  As they were packing up their equipment and supplies, Executive Director Doris Duncan approached Sargent Tony McCoy about digging a pond for a future planned river otter facility.  Since Tony and his unit needed to move on to their next assignment, he recommended she get in touch with his good friend, Todd Hendrickson, an award-winning local pool builder and President of Aquascape Custom Crafted Pools in Petaluma. 

Doris contacted Todd and invited him to the Center to inspect the site.  Todd liked what he saw and began researching what it would take to design and build a pond suitable for otters.  

After a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, much discussion with his wife and family, and enthusiastic response from his employees, Todd contacted SCWR with a remarkable offer to donate the labor to design and build the pond! 

With the number of otter rescue calls increasing, Doris jumped at the offer.  “The nearest facility is in Lake Tahoe,” she explained.  “Having a pond closer to the Bay and its tributaries reduces the stress on the animals.  The long drive to Tahoe is difficult on the animals and on our volunteers. This will be a facility that all California wildlife centers can utilize.” 

Working with Doris and her staff, Hendrickson designed a large pool with boulders and other unique features that allow the otters to swim and rest.  Volunteers from Aquascape and other companies dug the pool, laid rebar and other structural enforcement and sprayed gunnite to line the pool.

The pool was filled with water for the first time earlier this month.  A local Eagle Scout candidate is building the den house which will give the otters a warm and secure place to rest when not exercising in their new pond. 

“What started as a dream became an amazing collaboration with local businesses,” Doris commented.  “I’m amazed that a project of this size came together so smoothly and with such care and attention to the needs of these wonderful animals.”

Thank you Todd, his wife Leslie, their daughter Victoria, their son Lucas and the team at Aquascape Custom Crafted Pools for this exciting addition to our Center! 

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Community Spotlight June 2018: Palace of Fruit

Back in 2010, a group of servicemen and women of the US Army Reserve 801st Engineering Company was at the Center to help us build our mountain lion enclosure.  As they were packing up their equipment and supplies, Executive Director Doris Duncan approached Sargent Tony McCoy about digging a pond for a future planned river otter facility.  Since Tony and his unit needed to move on to their next assignment, he recommended she get in touch with his good friend, Todd Hendrickson, an award-winning local pool builder and President of Aquascape Custom Crafted Pools in Petaluma. 

Doris contacted Todd and invited him to the Center to inspect the site.  Todd liked what he saw and began researching what it would take to design and build a pond suitable for otters.  

After a trip to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, much discussion with his wife and family, and enthusiastic response from his employees, Todd contacted SCWR with a remarkable offer to donate the labor to design and build the pond! 

With the number of otter rescue calls increasing, Doris jumped at the offer.  “The nearest facility is in Lake Tahoe,” she explained.  “Having a pond closer to the Bay and its tributaries reduces the stress on the animals.  The long drive to Tahoe is difficult on the animals and on our volunteers. This will be a facility that all California wildlife centers can utilize.” 

Working with Doris and her staff, Hendrickson designed a large pool with boulders and other unique features that allow the otters to swim and rest.  Volunteers from Aquascape and other companies dug the pool, laid rebar and other structural enforcement and sprayed gunnite to line the pool.

The pool was filled with water for the first time earlier this month.  A local Eagle Scout candidate is building the den house which will give the otters a warm and secure place to rest when not exercising in their new pond. 

“What started as a dream became an amazing collaboration with local businesses,” Doris commented.  “I’m amazed that a project of this size came together so smoothly and with such care and attention to the needs of these wonderful animals.”

Thank you Todd, his wife Leslie, their daughter Victoria, their son Lucas and the team at Aquascape Custom Crafted Pools for this exciting addition to our Center! 

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 Community Spotlight March 2013: Lagunitas Brewing Company 

It is March once again and beautiful things are happening in Sonoma County. The sun is finally shining, flowers are blooming, and birds are chirping. Wild animals are also coming into their breeding season. Litters of raccoons, skunks, and opossums are filling dens and tree crevices. If something happens to mom, hit by a car or trapped by a property owner, these babies are then orphans and will be brought to our center where we give them the care they need to go back out and live on their own in the wild. Every orphaned raccoon that we admit needs formula, vaccinations, a microchip, de-wormers; the list goes on and on. Each individual raccoon costs an average of 500 dollars from the time it comes in, to the time it is big enough to be released and it is up to us to gain the funds to raise these babies.

We decided as a staff to get a fundraiser together to help with the extra costs of baby season. We had heard only positive things about holding events at the Lagunitas Brewing Company, but we never imagined it would be so amazing. Don Chartier, the contact for nonprofits planning events with Lagunitas was friendly and extremely helpful every step of the way.

As we walked into the brewery on the day of the event, we were greeted by a jovial and extremely accommodating staff. They were ready to help us arrange tables, set up our food and drinks, get the band set up, and put the raffle together. The beer sanctuary was sunny and warm, the perfect place to sit and enjoy a nice, cold beer.  All of their signature home brewed beers were available to the guests in the tap room, and all of the proceeds from the bar were donated to SCWR.

Lagunitas Brewing Company is a great local business with delicious beer and a fun tap room. But more than that, they support the local community with their donations. They set aside every Monday and Tuesday for nonprofit fundraisers free of charge and donate all of the proceeds during the events. They also donate as much beer as needed for nonprofit events at other locations.

We are grateful to Lagunitas Brewery for helping us and giving so much back to our community. Show them your support by visiting their tap room or going on a free tour of the brewery at 1280 North McDowell Boulevard in Petaluma.

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Community Spotlight Summer 2020: Park Avenue Turf

Our three little beavers have moved to an outdoor enclosure thanks to Park Avenue Turf! Ready to move from our hospital into an outdoor enclosure, these beavers still needed to complete a 2 week quarantine before moving into the Aquatic Mammal Enclosure where they will spend the rest of their rehabilitation. Our outdoor quarantine enclosures, also known as our Isolation Community, are completely separated from other parts of the Wildlife Rehabilitation Community and each enclosure is outfitted with concrete floors so that they can be easily sanitized in between wildlife patients. Since wildlife patients spend little time in this area, the unnatural concrete flooring does not pose an issue but the case is much different with beavers.

Beavers spend the majority of their lives in the water, therefore they have large buoyant bodies and soft webbed feet. Their tails are also an extremely important tool for the beavers, not only do they use them as rudders when swimming , they also use them as a defensive mechanism, slapping the water to make a loud splash to ward off predators. Both of these unique characteristics prove to be extremely problematic when you have beavers living on hard concrete surfaces for any amount of time. Their heavy bodies weigh on the pads of their feet outside of the water and the friction against concrete can severely injure the pads of their feet and tail. Also, if a beaver were to feel threatened while on concrete and decide to slap it's tail, the tail could shatter causing a life threatening injury. With all of this in mind, outfitting our isolation enclosure with sod is the perfect solution. Having worked with beavers many times before, we knew just who to call!

Park Avenue Turf has donated sod to us several times over the years and this time was no exception. Not only were they extremely happy to help us again, they even put a rush on the order after they learned that these kits were making a mess of our hospital. We're so grateful to Park Avenue Turf and send them countless thanks for answering the call every time we've asked.

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Community Spotlight Spring 2020: Blindingly Clean

Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue has had the privilege of working with Blindingly Clean since we moved to our current center in 2007. Upon first moving into our center, we were extremely tight on funds and were relying solely on the community to help provide us with materials and volunteer work to furnish and build out our center. When moving in, every window was bare and in need of blinds so Executive Director, Doris Duncan, contacted Ernie Martin at Blindingly Clean to help put up much needed window coverings. For us, blinds were a high priority in order to give staff and volunteers shelter from the sun after long days working outside caring for animals and building enclosures. In addition they are also extremely valuable to our hospital staff who need privacy during intense procedures and when the time comes to humanely euthanize a wildlife patient. During each type of event, the blinds give the animals a smaller space to be enclosed within, limiting stress to them. Ernie, who had watched the developments happening on the property, heard of our need and went above and beyond what we could have hoped for; he installed used and refurbished blinds throughout the center free of charge.

As we continued to build out the center by adding the Nursery, our Wildlife Education Barn and our Raptor Recovery Center, Blindingly Clean was there for us with every new addition by donating blinds and making monthly contributions to our efforts. In January, when we announced that we were going to be building an Apex Predator Enclosure, Ernie immediately reached out out to Doris to let us know that, once again, he's available to help with whatever we need for this project. Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue would like to thank Ernie for his compassion and generosity throughout the years!

If you are in need of blind cleaning, repairs or replacements, we highly recommend working with Blindingly Clean. Based out of Santa Rosa, Blindingly Clean has been in business since 1999 and services from Petaluma to Cloverdale. They are a one stop shop for window coverings with a 5 star rating on Yelp.

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 Community Spotlight Summer 2016: Wine Country Ranch and Equipment

This month’s Supporter Spotlight is on Wine Country Ranch Equipment.  They are located just down the street from us at 6643 Stony Point Road.  The owner, Bob Giannecchini, has been in the business for fourteen years and knows his stuff. They sell horse and cattle equipment, feed, as well as some hard to find parts and fittings! They are always willing to help us when we come running with a broken part from one of our enclosures. With fair prices and great customer service, look no further than Wine Country Ranch Equipment for your ranch and farm needs. 

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Wine Country Ranch and Equipment: (707) 795-1200 

Community Spotlight Aug. 2017: Oliver's Cotati

By Doris Duncan, Executive Director

Oliver’s Market in Cotati is my local grocery store. I have been shopping there for 24 years, ever since I moved to Cotati. It was the only place I could find the delicious turkey and salami that my picky daughter eats.

For the past 17 years I have been involved with non-profit Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, a local neighbor to Oliver’s in Cotati. Many volunteers who live in Cotati shop there to feed their wild and orphaned foster babies with special dietary needs which are easily met at Oliver’s.

An example of this may be a sick little raccoon that is barely eating. One of our volunteers can go
to the meat department and ask for some irresistible shrimp. I have been to the meat department a hundred times to get fish for patients with diverse dietary needs- from baby otters to adult osprey. They also have great meat bones that our wolf-hybrids love. Thanks to Steve, the meat manager, for helping us select special orders at a great price.

The vegetable department is equally amazing. Michael, the manager has helped us with produce that customers might pass over. In an effort to not waste anything, we are able to pick up discarded fruit to feed our foxes, coyotes, raccoons, squirrels, opossums, skunks, crows and ravens during the busy baby season. We also have baby bunnies that are just weaning off formula and require special greens that we can find only at Oliver’s. Our foster care volunteers appreciate a local store that they can go to for these items.

I am especially grateful to Oliver’s for allowing us to set up an educational booth in front of their store, giving their customers a chance to learn more about us. Because of this, we have found the support to begin building our new Raptor Recovery Center, which will be a specialized hospital to treat orphaned or injured owls and hawks. We were also able to enlarge our wolf-hybrid enclosure to support Willy, our latest rescue.

Recently when I was set up in front of Oliver’s, Tom the store manager stopped by on his way in. I had a chance to thank him for letting us be there. I also mentioned to him that I was being careful not to bother his customers if they did not seem interested in us or were in a hurry. He thanked me for that and added that Oliver’s cared very much about other local organizations and that this was their way of supporting their community. I was impressed at his sincere compassion and caring.

On behalf of Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue, we would like to thank Oliver’s Markets and their customers for “keeping it local and keeping it real.”

Appreciatively yours,

Doris Duncan
Executive Director

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Community Spotlight January 2013: Oliver's Cotati 

It was 2004, while we were building our first wildlife center on the grounds of the Humane Society in Santa Rosa, when we first started working with Aaction Rents. We needed a lot of equipment like chain saws, ditch witchers, scaffolding, various tools such as pick axes, pounding bars, shovels, rakes and all those lovely things it takes to build a wildlife center. Of course we had little or no money to buy any of those things so we contacted Steve Plamann at Aaction rents. We told him about our “situation”, how we had waited 4 years to build a wildlife center and now we were finally ready to start building. We told him about all the animals that needed our help and what kind of enclosures we needed to build for them.

He was very sympathetic and eager to help. He also involved the rest of the managers in his wonderful company. They might not always have had what we needed in the Dutton Ave. or River Road, Santa Rosa stores, but then the Windsor store would help us. Everyone worked together to make sure we had what we needed.

Since we moved to our current location in Petaluma on Mecham Rd.  Aaction Rents has continued to be there for us. We “borrowed” scaffolding to build the Raptor Recovery Center in March and are still using it. Steve might call occasionally to see how we are doing.  A typical conversation might go like this: “Hi Doris, this is Steve from Aaction Rents, how’s that scaffolding working out?”  I would reply; “Oh it’s going great Steve. There are volunteers standing on it right now working on the roof. We are more then halfway done with the Raptor Recovery Center. I can’t wait for you to see it. Thank you so much for letting us borrow the scaffolding for so long. We really appreciate it.” Steve would then say, “Ok Doris, keep up the good work. Just get it back when you are done. I will keep trying to get there to see you. Just been real busy here.”

Here it is 2013, and we are still all working together to make a better place for the animals. It really does take a village to raise a wildlife center. We are eternally grateful for the kind and generous folks at Aaction Rents.​

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Community Spotlight May 2013: Petaluma Minute Man Press

Twice each year Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue mails out flyers to all of our supporters to ask for their continued support. Our Spring Season Plea focuses on donations to help us care for the influx of baby animals we see from March through October. This is the most costly time of year for SCWR, and this mail-out is crucial for us to be able to provide the care that our wildlife patients need.

Petaluma Minuteman Press helped make this year’s Spring Season Plea possible with their amazing customer service and by giving us a discount and helping us keep printing costs as low as possible.

Working with Petaluma Minuteman Press was a wonderful experience. Their knowledgeable and friendly staff knew what to use and how to print everything so that it looked great and kept costs down. Our Spring Season Appeal turned out beautifully and was mailed out to nearly 2,500 supporters. 

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 All the wildlife rescues in Northern California lost their meat source when the San Francisco Zoo was no longer able to provide us with free mice and rats. Layne Laboratories is one of many places from which we purchase natural frozen prey items for our animals, including mice, rats and quail. They strive to provide comfortable housing and excellent care to their animals before we purchase them. Layne Laboratories was unable to give discounts to so many different organizations despite their desire to do so, but they found a new way to help our struggling wildlife rescue. Members of the public can now donate to our account and we will be able to use your donation to purchase any food we need for our wildlife patients. 

If you would like to donate to our account, please click here. 

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Dr. Paul Palmatier and his team at Heritage Veterinary Hospital in Santa Rosa have examined andtreated many wildlife patients for Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue (SCWR) throughout the years, from a bobcat that had been hit by a car to a raccoon with its leg caught in the branch of a tree. In fact, Dr. Palmatier was our very first veterinarian to participate on our team of Good Samaritan Veterinarians. In that capacity he helps us when we get an animal that needs more extensive veterinary care than we are able to provide at our facility such as radiographs, suturing a deep wound, or surgery on a broken bone.

Most recently Dr. Palmatier helped us with Gray Fox #923. The fox was found lying next to a road and appeared to have a broken jaw, as well as showing signs of shock. The animal was brought to SCWR and it was clear upon an initial examination that it needed to see a veterinarian as soon as possible. The fox was given emergency treatment to stabilize it for transport to Heritage Veterinary Hospital where it received radiographs. Dr. Palmatier and his team then wired the fox’s jaw and put a feeding tube into place. Since then fox #923 has had its feeding tube removed, is eating soft foods on its own, and is recovering in ournursery.

Thanks to dedicated veterinary professionals like Dr. Palmatier and his team, we are able to rehabilitate many wildlife patients that would otherwise not be releasable. We could not help all of the animals that we do without the professional care and expertise of our Good Samaritan Veterinarians. 

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Community Spotlight Fall 2020: All About Trees

It's not too often that we call on outside resources for help with a rescue but when we received a call about a raccoon stuck by it's rear leg 20 feet up in a tree, we knew just who to call! All About Trees is a local tree company who has been helping us prepare for our new APEX Predator Enclosure and trail maintenance around the facility. As a wildlife rescue and non-profit, they have been extremely mindful of our unique and specific needs while working at the center. So when we saw this daunting rescue, we knew that they just might be willing and able to lend a hand. Kyle answered our call for help and drove straight to the Coast Guard Base and prepared his ropes while learning to use a catch pole for the first time. Kyle completed the rescue and the raccoon was brought to SCWR for care. Thank you so much to Kyle and All About Trees for your help and compassion for wildlife!  Click here to see a video of the rescue.

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Community Partner Spotlight August 2013: Soiland and V Dolan Trucking

Soiland and V Dolan Trucking companies have been described as being “joined at  the hip” by Mark Soiland, Vice President/Chief Operations Officer of Soiland. Mark’s respect and affection for the company V Dolan Trucking dates back many years when Mark and V Dolan Trucking Vice-President Erik Fowler were friends growing up together as boys. They vacation together with their families and both, in their own way, work together making Sonoma County a better place. Both companies contribute to the Community in many ways. One of these ways is donating services and materials to non-profit organizations such as Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.

Our relationship with these companies goes back years. Indeed, when we first began building our wildlife center here in Petaluma, Mark and his company donated all the materials for our driveway and Erik and his company donated all the trucking of those materials. You really can’t have one without the other.

Most recently they have both donated again. V Dolan Trucking brought us the materials from Stony Point Rock Quarry (a Soiland company) that we needed for the bottom of our Raptor Recovery Center. They had valuable advice for us and gave us better ideas for our project.  Not only did they contribute their advice, services and materials, they actually THANKED US for all the work we do saving local wildlife.

We are so proud to have these two companies as part of our family of community supporters. They will definitely be a big part of our Grand Opening of the Raptor Recovery Center taking place in October of 2013. 

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Community Partner Spotlight October 2012: Major League Electric

Our community spotlight this month is Major League Electric, owned and operated by Stacy Horton and his lovely daughter Shawna. During the summer of 2011 we received a phone call looking to place two raccoons in a permanent home. They had been raised by a family and released back into the wild, but unfortunately the family did not have the proper training in raccoon rehabilitation and the release was a failure. The raccoons were too tame and were repeatedly going up to people, as well as getting into cars and houses.We accepted the raccoons as permanent education animals. Since we would now have three raccoons housed in our education exhibit, we needed to expand and improve our current raccoon enclosure. We thought a pond would be a wonderful feature to add to the enclosure because raccoons love water.

We wanted a running creek fully equipped with a flowing waterfall, but to obtain this dream we would need electricity, and the raccoon enclosure was quite far away from the nearest electrical source. This meant we were going to have run a whole new line down to the area. We started calling around and were getting bids in the upper hundreds, which was very discouraging. This is where Stacy and Major League Electric come in.  We called them expecting to hear another bid in the high hundreds and instead we heard “free”! Stacy agreed to do all the labor for free, amazing!   Because of his generosity we were able to get electricity down 300 feet from its original source. Not only did he help us get electricity to the raccoons, but he also went the extra mile and brought electricity over to our developing otter pond clear on the other side of the property. Major League Electric was professional and efficient and a joy to work with.

We cannot express our gratitude for all the hours Stacy and his assistant Sohiel put in. As a tribute to Stacy and Major League Electric we named our newest education animal after him, Stacy the coyote. You can visit Stacy the coyote and see the running raccoon pond on a Saturday tour.

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Community Partner Spotlight August 2013: Soiland and V. Dolan Trucking Inc.

Soiland and V Dolan Trucking companies have been described as being “joined at  the hip” by Mark Soiland, Vice President/Chief Operations Officer of Soiland. Mark’s respect and affection for the company V Dolan Trucking dates back many years when Mark and V Dolan Trucking Vice-President Erik Fowler were friends growing up together as boys. They vacation together with their families and both, in their own way, work together making Sonoma County a better place. Both companies contribute to the Community in many ways. One of these ways is donating services and materials to non-profit organizations such as Sonoma County Wildlife Rescue.

Our relationship with these companies goes back years. Indeed, when we first began building our wildlife center here in Petaluma, Mark and his company donated all the materials for our driveway and Erik and his company donated all the trucking of those materials. You really can’t have one without the other.

Most recently they have both donated again. V Dolan Trucking brought us the materials from Stony Point Rock Quarry (a Soiland company) that we needed for the bottom of our Raptor Recovery Center. They had valuable advice for us and gave us better ideas for our project.  Not only did they contribute their advice, services and materials, they actually THANKED US for all the work we do saving local wildlife.

We are so proud to have these two companies as part of our family of community supporters. They will definitely be a big part of our Grand Opening of the Raptor Recovery Center taking place in October of 2013. 

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