Wildlife rehab center focused on ensuring its survival

For half a century, Smithtown’s Sweetbriar Nature Center has cared for injured wildlife and given humans a chance to visit with hawks, pigs and the occasional snake through its nature education programs. 

But now, like many nonprofits across Long Island, the nature center itself is in need of care. Before the pandemic, Sweetbriar relied heavily for revenue on spring and summer programming for school groups and families with children; those programs were canceled or curtailed for safety reasons. A fall fundraiser has been canceled, as has a party planned to mark the center’s 50th year. 

“We were supposed to celebrate,” center director Marie Smith said. Instead, staffers are focused on ensuring the center’s survival. During a visit last week, this seemed to be literally the case at the Eckernkamp Drive mansion that serves as the nature center’s base of operations: staffers scrambled to find a working generator after Tropical Storm Isaias knocked out power. Town workers brought two, but produce donated in a Town of Smithtown food drive spoiled. Some expensive purchased items like powder for hummingbird nectar that needs to be stored cold were salvaged.

Sweetbriar is one of about five centers on Long Island with the facilities, expertise and licensing to rehabilitate a range of wildlife. Though it occupies land owned by the Town of Smithtown, it is an independent organization not funded by taxpayer dollars. 

Smithtown’s Animal Shelter sends over about 10 to 15 wild animals a week for care, Smith said. The center fields hundreds of calls a week about injured wildlife, and residents bring in about 1,000 animals a year for care — more, now that residents working from home seem to be finding more injured animals, said Isabel Fernandes, the center’s wildlife care coordinator. Isaias also brought an influx of baby squirrels and songbirds blown from their nests. The center has about 500 animals now. 

Since the pandemic hit, Smith said, Sweetbriar has stopped hiring the temporary workers who helped run the center and its programs. When educational director Eric Young soon retires, his position will go unfilled.

Staffers have tried to bring in new revenue with virtual yoga classes and by offering some of its resident animals as celebrity guests for Zoom meetings. Brick the pig, Pumpkin the screech owl and others will appear at a 10-minute Corporate Meeting Cameo for $100.

These programs, along with a socially distanced summer program for families, bring in a fraction of the revenue the center depends on to do its work, Fernandes said. 

This has led to difficult conversations about limited resources with her colleagues. “When it comes to salary or taking care of animals, we can take care of the animals and cut back” on salaries, they decided. While they will never lower the quality of care they provide, she said, they are carefully evaluating which animals get it. 

For example, a resident recently brought in a red-tailed hawk with a wing that could not be fixed. “In the past, we’d think about keeping it” as a permanent resident. This time they couldn’t. It's very hard to find a nature center willing to take in a hawk with no chance of recovery, Fernandes said, and they had to euthanize it. “It’s not an easy decision,” Fernandes said. “I hate it.”