Celebrating Milestones and Looking Ahead

As we conclude 2024, we’d like to take a moment to honor the remarkable achievements of the Oiled Wildlife Care Network and provide you with a glimpse of what’s on the horizon for 2025.

This year marked many significant milestones for our Network, highlighted by the following accomplishments:

• Celebrating 30 Years of Compassionate Care: We commemorated three decades of dedicated service to wildlife affected by oil spills.
• A Fond Farewell: We bid farewell to our long-standing Director, Dr. Michael Ziccardi, whose leadership has been invaluable.
• A Warm Welcome: We welcomed our new OWCN Director, Dr. Victoria Hall, and look forward to her inspiring vision for the future.
• Successful Oilapalooza: Our first Oilapalooza and Full Deployment Drill combined event was a resounding success, drawing over 110 attendees!
• Dedicated Communication: The Management Team responded to over 450 calls through our 24-hour hotline, showing our commitment to wildlife care.
• Swift Incident Response: This year, we were notified of 10 incidents, with seven resulting in activations, all of which were relatively small in scale.
• Strengthening Partnerships: We engaged with at least 25 of our Member Organizations, and we’re excited to expand these connections in 2025.
• Professional Development: We concluded the year with an intensive Oiled Wildlife Specialist Training, enhancing our team’s skills and readiness. 

The Management Team is diligently crafting an exciting agenda for 2025, including new offerings that promise to enhance our impact. Keep an eye out for announcements at the beginning of February!

In the meantime, we wish you all a happy, healthy, and hopefully oil-free 2025. We deeply value each one of you and look forward to seeing you in the coming year.

With heartfelt gratitude,

Danene (on behalf of the OWCN Management Team)