Oakland’s Yggdrasil Urban Wildlife Rescue helps baby animals return to the wild

Lila Travis with one of the baby squirrels at her wildlife refuge.

Travis is the powerhouse behind the Yggdrasil Wildlife Rehabilitation Center, and if it seems like animals have seeped into every aspect of her life, it’s because, well, they have. She and her late husband founded Yggdrasil in 2001. The center takes in orphaned baby animals—especially squirrels, opossums and deer—fosters them, and cares for them until they’re ready to return to the wild. They take in close to 200 Bay Area animals every year. Right now, the middle of the springtime rush of animal births, is Yggdrasil’s busiest season.

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Ruffled feathers: The goose dispute at Lake Merritt

Every summer, from June into September, Lake Merritt is goose territory. The problem, some park visitors say, is what they leave behind – feathers and droppings, which cover the grass and smear the sidewalk, especially around Lakeside Park, during the summer months, when visits to the park peak.

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