Join us on Facebook:

Become a Wildlife Steward!

If you're ready to volunteer, please click here to get started. There are several ways you can help:

Become a wildlife Rehab Care or Support Steward
Become a Wildlife Shelter Naturalist
Non wildlife volunteer opportunities

A principal strength of any non-profit wildlife rehabilitation center is its volunteers.

We are no different -- we appreciate and need volunteers for a variety of operational and wildlife care needs.

Some people believe that the only volunteers a wildlife rehab center such as ours needs are those who work directly with wildlife. Not so! Because we only have five paid employees, there are a multitude of tasks with which Board members and other volunteers presently help. Some of these are listed below.

Wildlife Rehab Care and Support Stewards
Wildlife Volunteer Stewards help more than 1,000 injured, sick and orphaned wild animals every year! They also help educate visitors and callers about living with urban wildlife.

Note: There is almost always a wait list for the Wildlife Rehab Care Stewards. It’s a good idea to become involved as a Support Steward so you become familiar with WSWS and its mission.

The primary qualifications for Wildlife Care and Support Stewards are:

• A genuine interest and a sincere commitment (minimum three months for support stewards and 6 months for care stewards).
• Must commit to one 4-hour shift per week.
• Have a current tetanus vaccination.
• Attend orientation class and basic training class
• Minimum of 15 years of age for Wildlife Support Steward with min of 3 month committment
• Minimum of 17 years of age for Wildlife rehab care Steward with a min of 6 month commitment

Wildlife Rehab Care Stewards are provided basic wildlife rehabilitation skills classes and training.  They assist licensed wildlife rehabilitators with intakes, exams, treatments , direct patient care, capture/restraint transport and baby animal care. 
Wildlife Support Stewards provide support services for injured and sick wildlife.  Duties include assisting in baby animal nursary, cleaning, laundry, disinfecting and transport of patients.
Stewards are required to choose a weekly four-hour shift (8am-noon, 1pm-5pm, 5pm-9pm from April to August and 9am-1pm, 1pm-5pm from September to March).  We are open 7 days per week.  In addition to the weekly shifts, stewards can assist with rescues, transporting animals to vets, the seal rescue/setting team, fundraisers & events, and education programs.
How to Get Started

If you have questions, please call Lynne at 206-855-9057, email lynne@westsoundwildlife.org, or send us a completed application. You can download an application as a PDF that you can complete by hand and mail OR download the application as a Word document, complete it on your computer, and email to lynne@westsoundwildlife.org.

Become a Wildlife Shelter Naturalist (new program)
Naturalist/docents engage and inspire children and adults to learn more about wildlife and help them observe and learn more about animals and wildlife habitat. Naturalist/docents are vital to a positive educational experience and are expected to provide effective presentations and programs to all age levels. Naturalist/docents can be trained to handle and show some of our education animals.
Requirements to become a WSWS Volunteer Wildlife Naturalist:

1. Desire to present wildlife programs and information to all ages including school children
2. Enthusiasm in learning about wildlife natural history and conservation and sharing that knowledge
3. Be a minimum of 18 years of age
4. Ability to serve for a minimum of 1 year following the training and provide a minimum of 12 programs per year.
5. Ability to provide own transportation to/from programs
6. Ability to handle live program animals including raptors and small mammals
7. Available to attend a comprehensive training program consisting of workshops, lectures and home study about wildlife natural history, wildlife habitat, conservation. live animal handling and teaching techniques requires additional training. Approximate training time is up to 80 hours
8. Ability to carry and lift 20 lbs
9. Naturalist hat provide off-site school programs may be required to have a security background fingerprint clearance

Duties:

1. Assisting with the development and implementation of special events
2. Staffing information booths at on/off site events.
3. Presenting school programs pre-school to 12 grade
4. Promoting the Backyard Wildlife Habitat Certification Program
5. Presenting live animal programs to all ages throughout Kitsap and surrounding counties (optional training)
6. Assisting with the care of live program animals

To Apply:
Please complete a volunteer application and note “Naturalist” as the project you'd like to take part in. You can download an application as a PDF that you can complete by hand and mail OR download the application as a Word document, complete it on your computer, and email to  lynne@westsoundwildlife.org.

Non Wildlife Volunteer Opportunities (Organizational Support)

Volunteers make Call to the Wild, our annual auction, possible!

Fundraising -- Does helping with an afternoon tea and fashion show, a meet-the-owl program for children, our gala auction, or grant-writing sound fun? We do them all with the help of our friends!

Carpenters -- We've been fortunate to have wonderful community help when building our mews (outdoor cages). We need some continuous help with basic in-door maintenance and "touch-ups".

Flower-tenders, lawn-mowers (the two legged sort), and weed pullers.

If you are interested in any of these types of jobs, please complete a volunteer application and note what kind of project you'd like to take part in. You can download an application as a PDF that you can complete by hand and mail OR download the application as a Word document, complete it on your computer, and email to ann@westsoundwildlife.org.