RANGELEY — A much-needed wildlife rehabilitation and conservation facility could be coming to the region.

The idea for a place to aid sick or injured wildlife was conceived by Britt Ferland of Fall River, Massachusetts, who said she has a heart for Rangeley, animals and helping others.

It is Ferland’s vision to combine those three passions into one and open Rangeley Wild.

Ferland said there is a great need for wildlife rehabilitators in the region.

“The more I look into it, the more I realize there are no local wildlife rehabilitators. There are zero in Franklin and Somerset counties,” she said. “So, if an animal gets sick or injured and there isn’t a rehabilitator close by, or if the facility is full, which happens a lot, then the animal gets put down. Potentially, even further down the road, we could develop a wildlife sanctuary for animals that cannot be released into the wild after rehabilitation.”

Ferland’s parents vacationed and camped in the region in the early 1970s, she said, and continued through her childhood when she developed a love for Maine and its wildlife.

“Once I was born, we found Haines Landing,” she said. “One by one, family members started coming up the week we vacationed there. It got to the point where the whole family would come up. We would take over and rent all the cabins for a week.”

Eventually, her parents purchased two of the Haines Landing cabins, Amos and Andy.

“Haines Landing was my happy place growing up,” she said. “It will always be my happy place.”

Her father, Gregg Selland, still lives in the area, which means Ferland has the opportunity to come back to her happy place as much as possible.

“Coming to the area and seeing all the wildlife has always been a thing for me, and for others. I have fond memories of spending my summers here with my cousins,” she said. “We would try our best to sound like a loon and were so excited when they would call back to us. I always wanted to work with the animals. I always dreamed about it. This past fall I could envision it working.”

She felt like she was at the right point in her life, and in her career as a registered nurse, to start working toward making her dream a reality, she said.

Ferland thought she would ease into the process and spend this summer working on nonprofit status and maybe start working on a website.

Then, in early June, she made an introductory post on a local Facebook group. The post was simply meant to share the Rangeley Wild vision with the community. She said the post was deleted because it did not fit the group criteria. But before it was removed something happened that energized her idea.

“I posted it thinking that no one would respond,” she said. “Before it was removed, I received eight responses from people who were interested in learning more.”

Ferland reached out to those who responded and told them board members were needed, if they were interested.

“I ended up calling every one of them so I could get to know them,” she said. “Every one of them said they wanted to help.”

With the board formed, the focus switched to putting together Articles of Incorporation for Rangeley Wild Inc. and applying for nonprofit 501(c)(3) status.

The next steps included building audiences on social media pages.

“I have gone from a person who never posts anything to figuring out when to make contact and what to create,” she said.

But that was just the beginning.

SHARING THE VISION

One of the board members mentioned the organization should have a vendor booth set up during Rangeley Lakes Chamber of Commerce’s July 3 in the Park celebration. A booth would help to bring attention to the vision and could help raise funds.

Without realizing how much work was required to have a vendor booth at an event, Ferland committed.

“You need the tent, the table, something to hand out, and something to sell,” she explained.

All of those items needed to be purchased or ordered. Ferland wanted the website to be up and running before the event. Time was short.

“I haven’t built a website in 20 years and that was in a college coding class,” she said. “I didn’t know what I was doing. My cousin stepped in and helped me get it together. It is a first draft and it is a little bit rough, but I think people can read enough about us and get a picture of what we are doing.”

Securing vendor space during the event proved to be its own challenge.

“At first I was told by the organizers there would not be space available for us to set up a tent. I had already ordered the T-shirts,” Ferland said.

The feeling of discouragement did not last long. Ferland got word there would be space available after all.

Then someone mentioned a permit from the town was needed to sell T-shirts. Someone else mentioned the permit application needed to be submitted to the town 30 days before the event. Then she learned the Board of Selectmen reviews permits during their meetings on the first and third Mondays of each month. The board’s final meeting prior to the July 3 event had already taken place.

“I came home from work that day and all the T-shirts were there, sitting on my porch. I didn’t know what I was going to do,” she said.

The next day, Ferland connected with town office staff and was told that since the organization was nonprofit it would be able to sell the shirts. She also learned that her booth, as all organization booths at the event, fell under the chamber’s permit.

“At the event, I was just blown away again,” she said. “So many people are so excited about this project. I thought I was excited, but seeing how excited others are, motivates me even more.”

TIMELINE TO REALITY

Despite interest ramping up, it will be some time before Ferland will be able to get Rangeley Wild up and going.

“I think it will take a couple years before we can open a facility, depending on how fast we move,” she said. “I am trying to be realistic and focus on fundraising.”

Ferland plans to use her experience in grant writing to raise some of the money.

“If by some miracle somebody wants to donate land, that would be fabulous, too,” she added.

Ferland said the fundraising goal would be developed as she works toward getting fully permitted and licensed.

“It is quite a process to go through,” she said. “I need 100 hours of mentorship and volunteering with a licensed rehabilitator. You need a letter of cooperation from a veterinarian who is willing to work with you. Then there is an examination.”

Ferland plans to go beyond the 100-hour requirement and spend time at different facilities.

“I want to get to know a variety of best practices and best ideas of how to build a facility,” she said. “I’d like to get an idea of what works for one facility and what might not work at another.”

The permitting process has its own challenge. A veterinarian willing to work with the facility is required. Veterinarians, especially in rural regions, are hard to come by, she said.

But, like every other challenge Ferland has faced, this one may have been solved miraculously.

“A man came up to the tent at the last event and said his daughter is finishing veterinary school and wanted to work in the Rangeley area. Maybe I can talk her into coming to work with us,” she said.

Meeting the permitting requirements and meeting her additional goals are the reason she settled on a two-year plan and slowly building momentum.

“It has been picking up so much quicker than I was ready for. But, you know what? The support and the positivity wave I am riding on is so uplifting,” she said.

For now, a bird rehabilitation facility is not part of Ferland’s immediate plans since they need to be federally licensed, she said.

“It seems like there is a lot of interest in supporting birds,” she said. “It would need to be a different facility, but I think we’d be able to support that in the future.”

She noted things would not have moved so quickly without the support of current board members Michelle Perlette, Amy Fitzherbert, Amy Peters and Bridget Morton and former board member Kelly Richard.

“I think this all ties in nicely with all the conservation in the Rangeley region,” Ferland said. “Wildlife is part of the woods, part of the forest and part of our ecosystem.”

Rangeley Wild will be a vendor at the Maine Logging Museum’s Logging Festival in Dallas Plantation on Saturday. In August, the organization will attend Oquossoc Days.

To learn more about Rangeley Wild visit rangeleywild.org or find Rangeley Wild on Facebook or Instagram.