A rendering by Wight & Company shows a new animal rehabilitation clinic and visitor center that is now well under construction at the Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn.
Courtesy of the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County
The Willowbrook Wildlife Center is rolling out a new name as a new building takes shape on the campus in Glen Ellyn.
The eye-catching, two-story structure will house a wild-animal rehabilitation clinic and educate visitors about their care and treatment. The center not only provides a place of respite for injured and baby animals and birds.
Willowbrook also has reared young, state-endangered Blanding’s turtles as part of a species recovery program. Its experts help suburbanites learn how to coexist with native wildlife.
To better reflect the work of the center, forest preserve officials announced the new moniker on Thursday. The complex is now officially called the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center at the surrounding Willowbrook Forest Preserve.
“It’s more mission-aligned to acknowledge that not only are we doing great things at the wildlife animal hospital, but of course, it’s a conservation center. And all that work we do with wildlife is really about conservation,” DuPage County Forest Preserve President Daniel Hebreard said.
The new name also clearly establishes the center in DuPage as its stature continues to grow, officials said in a news release. It’s not to be confused with the town of Willowbrook or Willowbrook High School.
Turns out the center was originally named Willow Brook in 1956 as a nod to the Glencrest Creek that flows through the preserve and was later renamed Willowbrook Wildlife Center in 1993.
“We’re, we think, national and even international leaders in the field of native animal wildlife rescue and rehab. And so it just gives a nice landmark,” Hebreard said.
Raptors gather in their flight barn at the Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn.
Brian Hill/bhill@dailyherald.com, July 2023
The center is in the midst of a major transformation. Recovering raptors have a new flight barn — a huge, L-shaped structure — to exercise their wings before they’re released back into the wild. Permanently disabled and senior birds moved into what Willowbrook’s care team affectionately calls “Resident Hall,” giving them the choice of both indoor and outdoor housing on the north edge of the property.
Old enclosures were also torn down to make way for the new 27,000-square-foot wildlife rehab clinic and visitor center. The existing, 1980s facility was initially closed to the public due to COVID-19. However, those public areas remain off-limits because of the overflow of patients.
The existing visitors center at Willowbrook Wildlife Center in Glen Ellyn is undersized, DuPage County Forest Preserve officials say.
John Starks/jstarks@dailyherald.com, July 2021
“We know we need more space. We know we need to separate prey and predator. We know that interactions with humans and even being seen by humans is very stressful on these animals,” Hebreard said. “So the amount of care and thoughtfulness that went into the design of the new building is shining through, and I think people will be really impressed.”
In the new building, visitors will be able to view animals — and veterinary staff in action, Hebreard said — from behind one-way windows and through video monitors. On social media, the center already shows “patients of the week,” sometimes birds entangled in fishing lines or bandaged up after being hit by a car.
“They won’t know that they’re on display, and they won’t feel that pressure and stress from human eyes. But people will be able to get to see baby animals and other animals as they’re brought in and as they’re recovering,” Hebreard said.
The center also will feature educational exhibits, an outdoor classroom and an interpretive trail with wildlife observation areas. Existing staff offices will later be converted to lab space for expanded propagation of endangered and threatened species.
The center is admitting animals throughout construction.