Illustration of the planned Willowbrook Wildlife Center’s new treatment and visitor’s center. The $25.5 million construction project is expected to be completed in 2025. (DuPage County Forest Preserve District image)

The Willowbrook Wildlife Center is closed to the public for a major construction project, but the injured and disabled animals it serves will still be taken care of.

The center, located in Glen Ellyn, will feature a new 27,000-square-foot wildlife rehabilitation and visitor center when completed sometime in 2025.

A $25.5 million master plan calls also calls new outdoor and indoor animal rehabilitation areas, interactive educational exhibits on the wildlife rehabilitation process, an outdoor classroom, an interpretive trail with wildlife observation areas and outdoor activity spaces that demonstrate how to attract and live in harmony with native wildlife.

The complex would be the Forest Preserve District’s first net-zero designed building, which means the energy produced from renewable resources exceeds the energy consumed by the building.

“This ambitious project will allow Willowbrook to continue providing innovative medical care to native wildlife,” said Forest Preserve District President Daniel Hebreard when the project was announced in 2022. “We’re making it net-zero to show our commitment to sustainability and do our part to fight climate change.”

The existing building is more than 40 years old. Since it was built, standards for wildlife rehabilitation have dramatically changed. Additionally, many of the building’s mechanical systems are at the end of their useful lives and need to be replaced to support safe and effective operations for wildlife patients, staff and volunteers.

Over the years, the area’s human population has grown, impacting its wildlife population as well. Willowbrook treats an average of 10,000 sick, injured, and orphaned animals each year. The aging clinic and outdoor rehabilitation area are not adequate for the needs of these wildlife patients.

The visitor center will showcase the behind-the-scenes medical and rehabilitation process. Visitors will be able to view animals as they’re examined, treated, in surgery, being fed, and rehabilitated behind one-way windows and through video monitors.

Existing non-releasable resident animals, most of which are geriatric, will be housed in specially designed enclosures appropriate to their needs to allow them to live out their lives as humanely as possible. Video monitors will showcase select animals as well as animals in the rehabilitation enclosures.

A wildlife garden with songbird habitat and an interpretive trail will allow the public to see wildlife in natural settings through specially designed observation nodes.

In 2011 the District adopted a new master plan and began implementing it in 2013. Over the last 8 years, a new parking lot that improves public access was built, a new species recovery building for wildlife rehabilitation was constructed and a 72.2-kilowatt solar array was installed for sustainability. All of these projects addressed several goals and objectives identified in that master plan.

As of April 2022, the District had also secured $3.7 million in private donations to support the project. The Friends of the Forest Preserve District continues to develop donor opportunities for this critically important center.

“This is a great opportunity for those who share our excitement about Willowbrook’s future to support this innovative project,” said Diane Addante, president of the Friends board.

All of Willowbrook’s operating expenses are funded by the Forest Preserve District, grants and private donations. The center does not receive state or federal funding.