What We Do
Blue Mountain Wildlife is the primary wildlife rehabilitation facility in eastern Oregon & south eastern Washington, serving an area the size of New York state. Since 1990, BMW has cared for over 15,000 animals, primarily raptors.
Our Mission:
To Preserve Local Native Wildlife through…
Rehabilitation: Orphaned, injured, and sick wildlife are provided the necessary treatment and care to enable their return to their natural habitats.
Education: Viewing our raptor ambassadors, and hands-on S.T.E.M. activities & games enhance people’s understanding of the impact their actions have on wildlife and the natural environment.
Research: We lend information about our raptors to various research groups in order to increase the understanding & care of these birds.
Our Background
Our story starts in the mid-1980s, with Lynn Tompkins. Then a veterinary technician at Pendleton Veterinary Clinic, Lynn began to gain experience with wildlife rehab through a young veterinarian, Dr. Jeff Cooney. After Dr. Cooney left, Lynn continued rehabbing local wildlife with nowhere else to go. Getting more and more animals, Lynn and her husband, Bob, founded Blue Mountain Wildlife in 1990.
Today, Blue Mountain Wildlife serves most of Eastern Oregon and South-Eastern Washington from two facilities, caring for over 900 animals each year. BMW has released 48% of wildlife since its founding, one of the highest release rates in the industry. Though we care for wildlife of all sorts, BMW specializes in raptor care.
Consistent with its mission, Blue Mountain Wildlife focuses not only on rehab, but also on education and research. Through our education programs and tours, we promote coexistence between wildlife and people. We also lend our raptor data for various studies and projects. At Blue Mountain Wildlife, we believe that a healthy world will support healthy, thriving wildlife and healthy, thriving humans. We do our best to help make this world a reality.
What is Wildlife Rehab?
Wildlife rehabilitation is the practice of caring for orphaned, injured, and/or ill wildlife with the ultimate goal of returning them to the wild.
At BMW, upon receiving an animal, a trained rehabilitator evaluates the condition of the animal and provides medical treatment. Animals requiring specialized care are taken to Pendleton Veterinary Clinic. Feeding, administering medication, physical therapy, and reconditioning are among the many daily care tasks that are necessary for restoring an animal to a releasable condition.
Most of the animals brought to BMW have had negative encounters with humans, such as collisions with vehicles or manmade structures, gunshot wounds, poisoning or destruction of nests. Wildlife has not evolved to coexist with these situations, and we believe that humans have a responsibility to both understand and ameliorate their impacts.
