In 2005, The Board of Directors of The National Humane Education Society (NHES) created the NHES Alliance Partner Program, which works collaboratively with and provides major funding to a select group of other deserving humane organizations, whose work embodies the successful implementation of NHES’s mission and/or one of NHES’s Guiding Principles. 

The Fern Wildlife Refuge (FWR) exemplifies NHES’s 6th Guiding Principle:  “To protect and conserve wildlife for its own sake and not as a resource for Man’s exploitation.”

NHES’s involvement with FWR began in 2004 when Gretl Learned, FWR president, graciously offered her assistance with two infant rabbits that had found their way to the BAAC.  (As a wildlife rehabilitator, Gretl is licensed by the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries to care for mammals and by the federal Fish and Wildlife Service to care for birds.)

Gretl and FWR began their charitable, wildlife rescue and rehabilitation efforts in 1992 and since that time have saved literally thousands of animals.  To learn more about FWR, please visit them on the web at www.fernwildliferefuge.org