Monthly Membership Program

Membership programs are open to the public, and all are welcome.
Social Hour at 6:30pm / Program at 7:00pm, on the 4th Tuesday of each month.
Whatcom Museum Old City Hall Rotunda Room
121 Prospect Street, Bellingham 98225

January 27, 2026

Wildlife Rehabilitation for Avian Conservation

Anna Schwabe, Wildlife Center Supervisor
Renata Luders, Volunteer & Intern Coordinator
Whatcom Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

The Whatcom Humane Society Wildlife Rehabilitation Center is a local non-profit wildlife rehabilitation center with the goal of rescuing, rehabilitating, and releasing all species of wildlife found in Washington State.

Anna Schwabe and Renata Luders will join us to provide an overview of the work of the Rehabilitation Center. They will discuss the common species they receive and treat, why they end up being brought to the center, and insights into what the  rehabilitation process involves. They will also delve into the importance of wildlife rehabilitation for avian conservation.

Anna Schwabe (she/her) has been interested in non-human animals all her life, beginning when she was a toddler and tried to make “friends'' with the ants in her family's yard. After growing up in Wisconsin, she studied equine science in Colorado, intending to train wild mustangs for film, but she ultimately decided wildlife rehabilitation was a better fit with her interests and worldviews. She got her introduction to rehab through internships at Sarvey (in Arlington) and in Florida, was hired at WHS in the spring of 2023 and in the summer of 2024 she began managing the wildlife center. While mammals will always have her heart, she enjoys the diversity of avians, and misses the many herptiles in care and in the ecosystems of Florida!

Renata Luders (she/her) has lived in Washington her whole life and loves how diverse the PNW and especially how close the ocean and mountains are in Whatcom County. She graduated from Washington State University in 2022 with a B.S. in Ecology & Evolutionary Biology. Her interest in wildlife stemmed from when she and her mom took an injured squirrel they found to PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center. She interned with Wolf Hollow Wildlife Rehabilitation Center and Sarvey Wildlife Care Center before starting as a full-time staff member at the WHS Wildlife Center in 2022. Her favorite species to work with are swans, raptors, and rabbits! In August 2024, she took on the role of Volunteer & Intern Coordinator.

November 25, 2025

Tidal Wetland Restoration in the Stillaguamish Delta:
The Intertwined Stories of Chinook Salmon,
Waterfowl, and Shorebirds

Jennifer Sevigny, Wildlife Program Manager
Jason Griffith, Environmental Program Manager
Stillaguamish Tribe Natural Resources Department

The Stillaguamish Tribe has been active alongside The Nature Conservancy and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife in restoring wetland habitats across large swaths of the Stillaguamish Delta.  For the past 25 years they have been learning from the birds and fish on how to most efficiently restore the habitats of species critical to the Tribe.  While Chinook salmon are the cornerstone of tribal fishing economies, and the driving force behind the Tribe’s tidal wetland restoration work, many waterfowl and shorebirds species are considered culturally significant and in some cases are hunted for subsistence and ceremonial purposes.

Jason Griffith and Jennifer Sevigny will present on their work in the Stillaguamish delta including purchasing and restoring large parcels that had been farmed for over 130 years.   They will also present data from a pre-harvest season duck banding project, which has been a collaboration with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW). The Tribe’s banding efforts are on-going and have led to other projects including applying GPS/GSM tags to Mallards to observe fine-scale habitat use, establishing motus stations and applying VHF LifeTags to monitor broad scale Mallard movements, and using unmanned aerial vehicles for pre- and post-restoration monitoring of nesting waterfowl.

Jennifer Sevigny is the Wildlife Program Manager for Stillaguamish Tribe Natural Resources Department. She is responsible for coordinating the wildlife program and conducting field research for a variety of projects involving game and non-game species in NW Washington State. Jennifer has worked for the tribe for over 20 years.

Jason Griffith has worked for the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians since 2000, and serves as their Environmental Program Manager.   He coordinates the planning and implementing of a wide range of restoration/acquisition projects, and serves on various salmon recovery related committees, including as Co-Chair of the Stillaguamish Watershed Council.