{"id":2775,"date":"2026-07-04T20:08:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:08:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=2775"},"modified":"2026-07-04T20:08:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T20:08:12","slug":"as-development-pushes-birds-out-carolina-waterfowl-rescue-tends-charlottes-flock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=2775","title":{"rendered":"As development pushes birds out, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue tends Charlotte\u2019s flock"},"content":{"rendered":"

Many people across the country have been feeling the squeeze of the rising cost of living.<\/p>\n

Read more 9 Investigates: I-77 toll lanes could be expanded on Lake Norman<\/a><\/p>\n

For Carolina Waterfowl Rescue<\/a>, a bird rescue facility that has been operating for nearly 30 years, weathering a changing economy is nothing new. But since the start of COVID-19 pandemic, the organization hasn\u2019t been able to catch a break.<\/p>\n

Carolina Waterfowl Rescue is a wildlife rescue and animal sanctuary that specializes in caring for baby birds, reptiles and farm animals. The rescue started in a garage and later expanded into a facility that provides a safe haven and lifesaving care for native wildlife across the Carolinas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re one of the few places in Charlotte that has a baby bird program that takes in songbirds because they\u2019re so labor-intensive to feed,\u201d founder Jennifer Gordon said. \u201cWe generally do about 6,000 animals a year, but earlier in June, we\u2019d already hit 4,000 animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

Baby bird season has hit the rescue particularly hard this year with the influx of fresh birds being hatched with nowhere to go. It\u2019s causing demand that outpaces the capacity the rescue has to offer. The constant development of Charlotte and surrounding areas has added a plethora of other issues for the rescue.<\/p>\n

Gordon said it\u2019s leaving displaced wildlife with fewer places to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur area is being heavily developed,\u201d she said. \u201cThe more that we develop Charlotte and the surrounding areas, the less space we\u2019re going to have for wildlife. It\u2019s creating displacement for wild animals.\u201d<\/p>\n

The land around the rescue once offered far more room for wildlife releases than it does today. As neighborhoods have grown closer, Gordon worries not only about the animals\u2019 safety, but also about the rescue\u2019s long-term stability.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe used to have 600 acres behind us for releasing wild turkeys and that\u2019s all gone,\u201d she said. \u201cNow we\u2019re just getting complaints like, \u2018Oh, there\u2019s a duck in my neighborhood. You guys need to come get it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Developers have also taken notice of the rescue\u2019s property. Gordon said she\u2019s been told there are people who want to buy the land CWR sits on.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a feeling we\u2019ll get pushed out of our place before too long they\u2019ll want to develop something on our land, and they\u2019ll need us out of there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even as wounds from the COVID era began to heal, Gordon said tariffs threatened any progress the rescue was able to make.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve been around for like 30 years, and I have not had financial problems until COVID,\u201d said Gordon. The rescue recently put its transport vehicle up for sale to keep operations going. Unable to afford repairs to the van\u2019s air conditioning, Gordon decided to sell it hoping to shed not only repair costs, but the rising expenses that come with keeping the vehicle.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just thought, well, if we could sell it, we can get a little money in. That will help reduce the insurance, because our insurance costs went way up this year,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Read more 9 Investigates: I-77 toll lanes could be expanded on Lake Norman<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWe were sourcing some stuff that was getting heavily tariffed. Things that we were getting really cheaply, all of a sudden weren\u2019t affordable anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grain used to feed the animals has gone up 40% since the tariffs went into effect. Gordon recalled one instance when an item the rescue had long relied on suddenly became far more expensive because of tariffs causing the rescue to have to spend $1,000 in unexpected costs.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat obviously set us back,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd now it\u2019s just the whole entire economy. Ever since the tariff thing happened, the price of everything has gone up and now the cost of fuel went up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fuel prices, she said, have created another domino effect: fewer transporters, fewer rescues completed, and more animals that never make it to CWR in the first place.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we started losing transporters,\u201d she said. \u201cSo now we don\u2019t have the money to do the transports, because the cost of fuel is so high and people won\u2019t bring animals to us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Higher fuel costs have also cut into the volunteer base that helps keep the rescue running.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have people that are struggling just to put gas in their car,\u201d Gordon said. \u201cIf they don\u2019t live close, they are cutting back. Overall, it has a big impact on the amount of staffing that we have to come up with to make up for volunteer shortages.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now, the rescue is asking for donations, and Gordon hopes they\u2019ll be enough to ease the strain. The front page of the rescue\u2019s<\/u><\/a> website says they need to raise at least $100,000 to be able to continue providing food and shelter to their animals.<\/p>\n

\u201cProbably over the next couple of weeks, we\u2019re going to have matching funds for donations that are coming in,\u201d she said. \u201cHopefully that can help us out a little bit.\u201d<\/p>\n

As she approaches retirement, Gordon said her focus is on getting the rescue through the end of baby-bird season and figuring out what comes next, without leaving the animals without a place to go.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the reality is that we just have to scale down on the operation a little bit, and I\u2019m not sure what that looks like yet,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we just need to get through the baby [bird] season right now, and then when babies are gone, we\u2019ll get together with the staff and kind of figure out where we\u2019re gonna go from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Fort Mill man competes in Nathan\u2019s hot dog eating contest Saturday. How he fared.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Facing development, higher fuel and tariff price hikes, the Charlotte sanctuary scrambles to support baby birds, maintain transports and retain volunteers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2774,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2775","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-read-todays-edition"],"yoast_head":"\nAs development pushes birds out, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue tends Charlotte\u2019s flock - \u0421harlotte Relocation Guide<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=2775\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"As development pushes birds out, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue tends Charlotte\u2019s flock - \u0421harlotte Relocation Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Facing development, higher fuel and tariff price hikes, the Charlotte sanctuary scrambles to support baby birds, maintain transports and retain volunteers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/charlotterelocationguide.com\/?p=2775\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"\u0421harlotte Relocation Guide\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-04T20:08:12+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8dbe691609d05fbc6dbaa5c440b54a93\"},\"headline\":\"As development pushes birds out, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue tends Charlotte\u2019s flock\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-04T20:08:12+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775\"},\"wordCount\":972,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/a44a63e6b8b95762302f47ca5823cb76.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Read today's Edition\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775\",\"name\":\"As development pushes birds out, Carolina Waterfowl Rescue tends Charlotte\u2019s flock - \u0421harlotte Relocation Guide\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/a44a63e6b8b95762302f47ca5823cb76.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-04T20:08:12+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/8dbe691609d05fbc6dbaa5c440b54a93\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/?p=2775#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/a44a63e6b8b95762302f47ca5823cb76.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/charlotterelocationguide.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/a44a63e6b8b95762302f47ca5823cb76.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":675,\"caption\":\"Carolina Waterfowl Rescue founder Jennifer Gordon opened the wildlife rescue and animal sanctuary in Indian Trail, NC. nearly 30 years ago. 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