After 34 years, Katherine Uhler, stepped down last fall as the lead educator of Pocono Wildlife.

As the only all species wildlife care rehabilitation and public education facility for northeastern Pennsylvania and the Lehigh Valley, it was essential to the lead educator of Pocono Wildlife to find the right person who would be as dedicated and would be able to fill her shoes.

In September Janine Tancredi and Susan Downing took over the wildlife center, hit the ground running and picked up where Uhler left off, by making their goal to rescue and eventually release all the rehabilitated wildlife to thrive and live in their natural habitat.

Tancredi and Downing, both licensed rehabilitators, work closely with the public, municipalities, and other agencies to rescue, rehabilitate, and release sick, orphaned, and injured animals.

Licensed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Pennsylvania Game Commission, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the PWRC serves nine counties: Monroe, Wayne, Lackawanna, Pike, Luzerne, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Northampton, and share Lehigh and Carbon with other rehabilitation centers.

Uhler has agreed to stay involved to help with the wildlife education program.

Co-directors Tancredi and Downing have started to address updating the center’s facilities by weatherproofing and expanding some of the enclosures, as well as looking into expanding the flight enclosures.

“We want to create a place that is more to their natural habitat,” Downing said, and added that the structures are not dangerous to the wildlife but they do need upgrading.

Tancredi and Downing appreciate the support from the community and the plan is to launch a major fundraising campaign for the many items they need to keep the wildlife sanctuary running and to be able to rehabilitate the wonderful wildlife in the Poconos.

The electrical system needs upgrading, they need an additional generator to help augment the electric and the renovations are estimated in the thousands, according to the co-directors.

Much of the work they do is cleaning up after the wild animals. With upward of 2,000 animals, they go through a lot of cleaning supplies. Needed are liquid laundry detergent or detergent sheets; Lysol laundry sanitizer; Bounty paper towels; toilet paper; Lysol cleaner (blue), brooms, dust pans with brushes, tall kitchen drawstring garbage bags (.9 mil), Scotchbrite scrubby sponges; large outdoor garbage bags; gallon- and quart-sized zippered bags; gift cards for supermarkets, Tractor Supply, Home Depot, Lowes, etc.; clumping cat litter; plastic baby toys (like keys, jingly balls etc. for enrichment); liquid white chalk markers; large bags of pine bedding (found at Tractor Supply Co. or Canfields); dry white pine needles in large garbage bags.

Also, food and bedding; Purina Kitten Chow (yellow bag); Dry dog kibble – prefer corn-based (Economets, Old Roy, Retriever Bites and Bones); fresh and frozen fruit (sweet apples, pears, melons of any kind); cracked corn, game bird starter, duck chow (also TSC/Canfields), clean and dry acorns.

For more information, visit poconowildlife.com/ or Facebook: Pocono Wildlife Rehabilitation and Education Center.