About Us
Our Mission
is to conserve and protect native wildlife and its natural habitat through education and rehabilitation.
We are a charitable organization whose purpose is to:
- rescue, recovery, rehabilitate, and release ill, injured, orphaned or oiled wildlife
- educate the general public about wildlife issues through lectures, displays, workshops, reports and publications
- contribute to the knowledge and understanding of wildlife by participating in research and sharing that information with wildlife organizations and the general public through meetings, seminars, conferences, reports, and publications
- conserve and protect wildlife and promote the conservation of wildlife habitat
MARS is not a zoo.
Our medical facility is a hospital and the wildlife species we treat are our patients. We extend the same courtesies a human patient would receive because privacy, peace, and quiet are essential to recovery. For this reason, we don’t allow the general public access to our patients in the hospital.
MARS wildlife caregivers also follow strict protocols to ensure the lowest level of human-wildlife interaction possible in order to prevent imprinting or habituation. We want our wild patients to stay wild. Our waterfowl, fawn, bat, and raccoon enclosures are not accessible to the public.
The ambassador enclosures guests visit during tours are designed for the safety, security, and privacy of our resident birds. We encourage quiet observation of these animals. We ask visitors to understand that our raptors and corvids are not always easy to see as they are allowed the choice to perch in the most secluded corner of their homes.
Our History
The Founders
MARS’ founder, Mary Jane (Maj) Birch, began rescuing and treating injured, oiled, ill and orphaned wild birds and animals in the early 1990s. As her caseload grew, Maj and her husband Keith converted a garage on their home property into a small wildlife hospital and recruited volunteers to help with rehabilitation and educational outreach.
In 1993, Maj applied for and received federal and provincial permits to rehabilitate wildlife. Two years later, in 1995, the society was registered as a provincial non-profit society. Mountainaire Avian Rescue Society (MARS) continues to be our legal name, but we are also known simply as “MARS” or “MARS Wildlife Rescue”.
Patient numbers increased rapidly during the years that followed; more space was needed but there was no room to expand on the small acreage owned by the Birches. In May 2015, after receiving a generous bequest from the estate of Michele Woodrow, MARS purchased two lots, totaling 4.42 hectares (almost 11 acres), a short distance away on Williams Beach Road.
It was Maj’s dream to build facilities on this larger property that would enable quality care for wildlife patients and provide a first home for our education program. She wanted the public—especially young people—to understand the importance of preserving and protecting native wildlife and habitat. In addition, she wanted to share what we were learning from our patients about human-caused harms to wildlife and encourage discussion about how to prevent this.
Sadly, Maj Birch died in the fall of 2015, but her legacy continues. A bequest from Maj and contributions from the community funded construction of a wildlife hospital on the recently purchased land. MARS moved to the new hospital in May 2017. The hospital expansion was completed in 2025.
In 2018, with funding from Island Coastal Economic Trust (ICET) and a mortgage from Coastal Community Credit Union, construction began on the first home for our education program. The visitor centre and gift shop opened in the spring of 2019.
Since that time, our volunteers and donors—individuals, community groups, and corporate sponsors—have helped us build enclosures for resident and recovering animals, construct a substantial, multi-area flight pen for recovering eagles and smaller raptors and specialized areas for bats, raccoons, and fawns.
The Future
As the property improvements proceed, we are making habitat preservation and recovery a priority. We are providing wildlife corridors through the property by keeping transit to grazing areas open. From a seasonally dry pond, we have created a wet habitat for the wild things. Our wetland area is visited by ducks, geese and songbirds, and provides a place for deer to drink. Even our local bear wanders by in the evening. In short, we are trying to provide habitat to our wild neighbours.
Over the years, MARS has witnessed an exponential increase in the number of animals that come through our doors. By far the main reason for our growing caseload is human expansion into traditional wildlife habitats. Simply put, all of us are interacting with wild nature far more often than we used to, and MARS is seeing more patients as a result.
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