Photo Provided This snowy owl, which was injured in Wood County in December, was treated at the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia and later released on the shore of Lake Erie near Erie, Pa.

MORGANTOWN — A snowy owl found in Wood County brought attention to the work of the Avian Conservation Center of Appalachia (ACCA).

Founded in 2012, the ACCA is a 501c3 nonprofit dedicated to conserving the region’s wild birds through research, education and rehabilitation.

The ACCA is licensed by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to care for these migratory birds and to house several for educational purposes. A team of more than 40 volunteers cares for injured wild birds as well as the ACCA’s non-releasable education birds, officials said.

The ACCA works closely with Cheat Lake Animal Hospital in Morgantown. The clinic is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, which makes it convenient for members of the public, law enforcement, and the DNR to drop off injured birds to the ACCA.

Several of the clinic’s veterinarians are experienced in avian medicine, and perform advanced orthopedic and soft tissue surgeries as well as administer medications, fluid therapy and other supportive care.

Each year the ACCA, at 286 Fairchance Road, admits approximately 300 individual injured or displaced wild birds representing more than 50 species. The most common patients typically include American robins, Eastern screech-owls, red-tailed hawks, cedar waxwings, chimney swifts, and barred owls.

But the bird from Vienna is the ACCA’s first snowy owl patient.

In addition to rehabilitating injured wild birds, the ACCA conducts environmental education programs featuring live, non-releasable birds of prey, including a peregrine falcon, red-tailed hawk, Eastern screech-owl, turkey vulture, black vulture, American kestrel, and Cooper’s hawk. These are all birds that cannot return to the wild because they would not be able to survive.

For more information on the ACCA, look on Facebook: facebook.com/ACCAWV/, online at accawv.org or phone 304-906-5438.