Cash coming to Tahoe animal center where burned cub escaped
RENO, Nev. – Private donors’ new pledge to match $500,000 in contributions for a $1 million-expansion at a Lake Tahoe wildlife rescue center is bringing smiles back to staff and volunteers, who have been on an emotional rollercoaster since a bear cub being treated for severe wildfire burns made a much-publicized escape this summer.
The Lake Tahoe Wildlife Care has been making repairs directed by California regulators since Tamarack – named after the wildfire that blazed across more than 100 square miles in the Sierra and severely burned the cub’s paws – tunneled under an electric fence and fled back to the wild.
It was the first escape in the 45-year history of the center in South Lake Tahoe, California.
Two days later, volunteers spotted and photographed a cub clinging to a tree 40 feet up in a nearby forest. They became convinced it was the 6-monthold escapee, decided to leave him alone and now believe he’s doing just fine.
The contribution the Bentley Foundation and MH Buckeye announced last week may just be the happy ending they’ve been looking for.
“We’ve turned the corner,” center spokesman Greg Erfani told The Associated Press. As of Wednesday, they were only $180,000 short of the $1.05 million needed to begin construction in the spring and finish by the end of 2022.
“It’s going to build the first animal hospital in the Lake Tahoe area,” he said.
The center has continued to rescue smaller animals and recently released seven rehabilitated coyote pups. But it’s been prohibited from accepting big game including bears since the California Department of Fish and Wildlife declared in October that it had to make improvements to its enclosures and fencing.
“Upon completion, CDFW will perform a site inspection and evaluate (the center’s) request to renew its agreement to temporarily possess and rehabilitate injured and orphaned black bear cubs,” department spokesman Peter Tira said in an email to AP on Wednesday.
Erfani said supply-chain challenges have delayed immediate repairs but the center should be fully up and running by next month, bears and all.
The tale of Tamarack’s rescueturned-escape began July 26 when a homeowner in Markleeville, California, spotted the cub crawling on his knees because his paws were so badly burned.
Photos of the bandaged black bear at the rescue center flooded social media and drew mention in international news coverage of the devastating fire that forced thousands of evacuations.
“Tamarack was sort of the first ‘feel good’ story that came out of the fire. It was all destruction and heartbreak, and then there’s this little guy that had survived,” Erfani said last week. “Then, of course, that little stinker was not going to be caged. He just wanted out.”
The center announced his escape Aug. 3, warning anyone who spotted him to stay away and report sightings to wildlife officials.
The center was doing everything it could to corral the cub, even sending up heat-seeking drones sometimes used to find lost hikers, Erfani said.
It paid off with the sighting of the cub clinging to the tree.
“We could tell he had all the same markings. But he appeared safe, and once released into the wild, we don’t bring them back,” Erfani said.
“We like to believe he’s out there now in the wild, living the bear’s life,” he said.