Volunteer at The Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center

Volunteer at WWCC

Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center volunteers worked nearly 40,000 hours in 2024, and we could use your help too.
At WWCC, we love our volunteers. If you are at least 16 years old, check out our volunteer opportunities below!

Before you fill out an application, please go through each of the following drop-down menus.

What do you get for being a part of the WWCC team?

At the Wetlands and Wildlife Care Center, you get to be part of a diverse group of people who share one core value: the desire to help wildlife. We work with thousands of animals and hundreds of unique species each year, so no two days are ever the same! As a WWCC volunteer, you get to help care for these animals from the the time they come in the door, until the moment they are released.

What do we look for in a volunteer?

An ideal volunteer at WWCC will have the following traits:

The ability to commit to at least one four-hour shift at the same time each week for a minimum of one year. Consistency in care for animals is of the utmost importance, and we need volunteers who are reliable above all else. If you foresee having to miss shifts regularly for any reason, please reconsider applying at this time
Excellent time management skills
The ability to follow directions from WWCC staff or any of our regulating agencies, which include:
- The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
- The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
- The California Veterinary Medical Board (CVMB)
- The Oiled Wildlife Care Network (OWCN)
The ability to ask questions if a task or procedure is unclear
Excellent collaboration and communication skills
The ability to adapt and to keep a level head when a situation may be stressful or sad
Willingness to spend many hours at a time performing basic but essential husbandry tasks (if applying to volunteer in Animal Care)

When can you volunteer at WWCC?

At this time, WWCC has applications open to volunteer with us on any shift, but some times of the week will need volunteers more than others. In your application, please select all times when you could make a shift. No matter how much availability you indicate, you'd still only be assigned one shift.

WWCC has the following orientation classes scheduled. One of these classes, which always run from 10:00 am - 1:00 pm, must be attended prior to beginning a volunteer position. If the dates below do not reflect your own availability, please check back in the future!

Saturday, January 3rd, 2026
Monday, January 19th, 2026
Saturday, January 31st, 2026
Sunday, February 15th, 2026
Saturday, March 7th, 2026
Saturday, April 4th, 2026

What should you know about WWCC before signing up to volunteer?

It is not a petting zoo or shelter.

We care for wildlife that will hopefully be returned to a safe location as soon they are able. The animal’s survival depends upon them not becoming imprinted by/or attached to the humans caring for them. We don't talk to, cuddle with, or pet our animals.

It is not glamorous.

We are a wildlife hospital. Therefore, many of our tasks revolve around the daily care and maintenance of the facility, which can often be dirty, smelly, mucky, and slippery. However dirty you are imagining the center in your head, it's probably worse!

It is a commitment.

Volunteers need to be willing to commit to at least one four-hour shift at the same time each week for a minimum of one year. While our requirement is that volunteers only commit for one year, we are more likely to accept your application if you're in it for the long run!

It is emotional, but rewarding.

Despite WWCC's best efforts, there are times when animals don't survive. Throughout the course of your volunteer journey, you will experience many cases where an animal doesn't make it through care, but also many cases when they do! You must be able to recognize that working in wildlife rehab can be an emotional rollercoaster. However, at the end of the day, getting to hold a cage door open for a rehabilitated bird going back to the wild is a special feeling, and that is what we always strive for.

Interested in volunteering? Apply below!

Interested in Animal Care?
WWCC Animal Care volunteers help primarily with husbandry. This includes daily cleaning tasks such as laundry and washing dishes, as well as preparing diets and assisting our medical staff with different procedures. Animal Care volunteers also assist with releasing healthy patients back to the wild when they're ready to go home! We do stress, though, that about 90% of the work animal care volunteers do is cleaning and food prep.

Please keep in mind before starting the application below that:

the application may take up to 30 minutes to complete
WWCC requests a $25 donation from each applicant (more info in the application itself). If you are unable to make this donation, please reach out and let us know

WWCC takes this application seriously, and we encourage prospective volunteers to take it seriously as well. Not all applications are accepted.

APPLY HERE

Interested in Admin?
Our admin volunteers are the first at WWCC to greet a new patient. These volunteers work with members of the public to make sure all intake data about an animal is accurate to ensure the animal does the best in care! These volunteers also work to enter the large amounts of data we accumulate while caring for a patient into online databases. If you'd like to help out at WWCC, but don't want to be directly around animals, this is the position for you!