The Nature of Wildworks Story
It all started with two Mountain Lions.
The Nature of Wildworks, a nonprofit 501(c)(3) located in Coarsegold, CA, was founded by Mollie Hogan in 1995 to bring to life her vision of providing interactive wildlife educational programs to enhance the public's understanding of nature and the environment, while also ensuring lifetime quality care for non-releasable wild animals.
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Mollie worked as an animal trainer at the Los Angeles Zoo. She trained and cared for the animal ambassadors in their "Wild in the City" show, but due to cut-backs, the show was cancelled. Two of these animal ambassadors were Phoenix and Sage, brother and sister mountain lions that Mollie had helped hand raise. Knowing that these animals would not do well as "exhibit animals" and wanting to make sure they ended up at a good place, Mollie decided to take them home and start her own wildlife care center in Topanga, CA.
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This is what started The Nature of Wildworks Care Center, which stayed in Topanga, CA for 26 years. The Nature of Wildworks cared for approximately 50 animals, provided on-site education, and delivered hundreds of awareness programs across Southern California each year. We are permitted and regulated by several government agencies that oversee animal health and safety.
The Nature of Wildworks is permitted by the USDA, U.S. Fish & Wildlife, California Fish & Wildlife, and the California Fish & Game. We are inspected annually to ensure that our care center meets their standards.
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The Nature of Wildworks has a two-fold mission. One is to provide life-long quality care for non-releasable wild animals. This means plenty of love and attention as well as the employment of various enrichment techniques to keep the animals stimulated and entertained. Secondly, The Nature of Wildworks strives to build public respect and concern for native wildlife and the environment.​The Nature of Wildworks presentations emphasize the need to not disturb or harm wildlife when it is encountered in its natural habitat, and help dispel the fear of "wild" animals while educating the public about preserving habitats and living safely with the wildlife in our local environment.​Mollie saw first-hand the positive effects of human interaction with nature during the twelve years she worked as a trainer and caregiver at the Los Angeles Zoo, where she participated in many of their public educational programs.​How many people will ever experience seeing these animals up close or hear the purr of a bobcat? This once in a lifetime encounter can change people's perspective, and that is what The Nature of Wildworks is all about. Seeing an animal up close and hearing its personal story makes that animal an individual and makes us care about what happens to it, and by extension to all animals.
Moving to Coarsegold
Due to zoning issues with the county and annual fires that only got bigger and bigger every year, The Nature of Wildworks decided for the safety of the animals, that it was time to move.
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We wanted to remain there with all of our supporters in that area. We so wanted to continue our animal care and educational mission there, but because of the aggressive action that was being taken by the County, our immediate concern was the health and safety of the animals. With the insane cost of land and living in CA, we thought it was better to look elsewhere. This was why we purchased land near Sedona, AZ. It was ideal in many ways. We were excited for our new home! The site offered a home for staff, larger grounds, options for larger enclosures for the animals, and what we thought were supportive government agencies and local residents. It was also away from fires!
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​However, lies were spread about The Nature of Wildworks and neighbors started to not trust us. Our permitting was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic which gave the opposition more time to spread their lies further and grow. Once our meetings were finally rescheduled, it was too late. We tried to work with the neighbors and listen to their concerns, but even after promising no on-site visits or fundraising events, they still did not want us there. After a year and a half, three Planning and Zoning meetings (two of which were unanimously approved), and two Board of Supervisor meetings, we were told our final no. Our animals were denied their chance of a beautiful, worry-free, permanent home in Arizona.
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The county of Los Angeles didn't care about the well-being of our animals and still forced us out. While we searched, yet again, for a new permanent home, the wild mammals were relocated to Zoo to You Conservation Ambassadors Inc. in Paso Robles for almost a year. The people who run this facility generously allowed us to house our wild mammals (and our two employees) there until we found our permanent home. Our animals remained completely under our care while they were there.
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​After tirelessly searching and calling almost every single county in California, we finally narrowed our search to Madera County. Why? Because they told us that the Conditional Use Permit process only took 3 months. This was the shortest amount of time we could find anywhere. Everywhere else told us 6 months to a year or longer. Way too long. On one her many visits to California, Mollie went and directly met with the county planning department in Madera in person. They loved the idea of us being there and wanted to do everything possible to help us get there. Wait, what? A helpful Planning Department? A county that wants us there? This county was looking better and better. And that's not where it ended. They told us find a property and we'll look into the zoning and see what you need to do. A wonderful property was found and The Nature of Wildworks made an offer to put it in escrow just to hold the property while we sorted things out with the county. They got back to us with a written letter stating that we could move all of our wild animals there at any time without needing a Conditional Use Permit! Escrow closed on the house on Mollie's birthday in 2021. So here we are, with a wonderful property that belongs to The Nature of Wildworks and the animals are allowed to be there.
In 2024 we got all the enclosures upgraded from temporary setups to permanent sanctuaries. This includes the building of the 400-600 square foot habitats for all our foxes and cats. The smaller animals such as our Giant Flemish Bunnies all got larger better homes too.
We're almost there. Next, we are working on a GIANT play yard called "The Freedom Run" for all of the animals to enjoy.​ Here they can run (or fly) as fast as they want without the confines of their new enclosures. We have other projects in the works as well, and we never would have been able to do any of this without you, our generous supporters.
The purchase of this property was only possible because of the generosity of one person, Janine Smith. Janine was a longtime supporter and a dear friend and when she sadly passed on in 2020 she remembered Wildworks in her will. Janine made it possible for us to find our forever home.