Daily Herald opinion: Dual purpose: DuPage wildlife hospital rehabilitates animals while educating the public

The DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center has long played a vital role in supporting native wildlife by caring for injured and orphaned animals from across the region. A report in Monday’s Daily Herald showed how important and timely that work can be.

While the Glen Ellyn facility treats various animals year-round, it helps many injured birds during the fall and spring migration seasons.

Large numbers of migratory birds are hurt or killed when they hit windows while traveling through Chicago, which is located along the Mississippi Flyway, one of four major migratory routes for birds in North America.

On Monday, our Harris Horowitz described how the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center works with the Chicago Bird Collision Monitors (CBCM) to nurse survivors back to health.

The CBCM is a bird conservation organization started in 2003. According to its website, volunteers take more than 3,000 injured birds to wildlife rehabilitation centers each year. Most of them end up at the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center for evaluation and treatment.

Horowitz reported that the weekend of Oct. 17 to 18 was among the deadliest in recent memory. More than 1,000 birds were injured or killed in collisions with buildings during those two days, according to CBCM.

That weekend, the center took in 334 patients, Horowitz wrote.

However, Sarah Reich, the center’s head veterinarian, told Horowitz that her team is well-equipped to handle crisis days like that.

The Forest Preserve District of DuPage County has done amazing work to ensure that the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center can achieve its mission of rehabilitating animals and reintroducing them to the wild.

In January 2026, the district completed a massive renovation of the wildlife rehabilitation clinic along Park Boulevard. The 27,000-square-foot facility features new indoor and outdoor rehabilitation areas, including 10 spacious outdoor flight rooms for recovering birds.

“We’re a well-oiled machine,” Reich said. “We’re able to manage whether it's 50 birds or 200 birds.”

Horowitz’s story explained how veterinarians at the center diagnose and treat collision-injured birds before releasing them on forest preserve property. The center also has ample space to “overwinter” birds that miss their migratory windows.

Meanwhile, the center is an important educational resource for suburban residents.

The facility’s visitor center has a series of large windows that provide views of clinic exam rooms, holding areas, and even live medical procedures. The space also has static displays on various topics, including how folks can treat their windows to decrease bird collisions.

We applaud the DuPage Wildlife Conservation Center for rehabilitating animals while also teaching us humans steps that we can take to avoid harming wildlife in the first place.