Refuge weathers storm

Cree howled. The sound stabbed through snow-laden pine branches, startling a raven or two.

Steve was here.

Steve Hall is used to getting announced when he pulls up in his truck to the Adirondack Wildlife Refuge in Wilmington. Hall is the friend and caretaker of Cree, a 14-year-old alpha male wolf, who knows the specific sound of Hall’s truck.

The howling continued as Hall walked into the refuge’s visitor center and settled on a couch near his wife, Wendy. Smiles flashed across their faces as they looked out on the snowy Adirondack scene, and a wolf trotted in front of the window with a carcass hanging from his mouth.

The smiles faded. While things may seem normal at the front part of their nonprofit education and wildlife rehabilitation center, they are not normal in the back. State and federal violations have altered the operation, leading the Halls to move birds to other care providers, and to employ another permitted rehabber.

A short walk through the woods leads to a little village of green enclosures. Some