Our Mission, Vision & Core Values

Our Mission

Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge (Cedar Run) is a 501(c)(3) environmental non-profit organization dedicated to the preservation of New Jersey’s wildlife and habitats through education, conservation, and rehabilitation.
The overall mission of Cedar Run is to serve as a community resource on the importance of protecting and enhancing healthy ecosystems for all.

Wildlife Hospital Patient:
A Red Fox is fully rehabilitated and released back into the wild. 

Our Vision

Based in Medford, New Jersey, our work has a profound impact on environmental protection across New Jersey and the surrounding region. As an organization, our vision is that the treatment and rehabilitation services that Cedar Run provides to injured and/or orphaned wildlife in New Jersey serve to educate, inspire, and instill a sense of stewardship in youth and residents throughout the region, leading to increased protection of our natural resources.

Cedar Run currently has a staff of 13 full-time professionals and several part-time employees, along with over 250 dedicated volunteers who provide a combined total of more than 65,000 hours of volunteer service annually. As a result of the work conducted by these dedicated individuals, each year Cedar Run:

  • Educates 30,000 school children through field trips, school assemblies, and scout programs.
  • Interacts with over 20,000 people through refuge visits, nature programs, family and night hikes, birthday parties, and summer camps.
  • Operates a Nature Center for visitors to learn about New Jersey’s wildlife.
  • Manages 171 acres of critically important Pinelands habitat.
  • Maintains over 3 miles of hiking trails for visitors to explore.
  • Treats and rehabilitates over 6,300 wild animals annually, a number that continues to grow each year.
  • Provides year-round care for nearly 60 wild animals who were not able to be released after rehabilitation.
Catbird Glue Trap 2021 - Lori Swanson

Wildlife Hospital Patient:
A Gray Catbird caught in a glue trap, carefully being handled by our Wildlife Rehabilitation Team.

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Wildlife Hospital Patient:
A Juvenile Striped Skunk is being fed specialized formula by our Wildlife Team.

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Wildlife Hospital Patient:
A Virginia Opossum is being released back into the wild! 

Our Core Values

Cedar Run seeks to work toward its mission by operating under the guidance of the following Core Values:

  • Excellence and Innovation
    We seek to use the most up-to-date, evidence-based treatments to enhance the care of our wildlife patients and to create new approaches based on proven treatments.
  • Professionalism
    We conduct ourselves to the highest ethical and professional standards in our field. We follow all state and federal laws and regulations that pertain to wildlife, our hospital facility, equipment, and staff.
  • Accessible and Inclusive
    We invite all people to respectfully experience our property and our programs. Just as biodiversity is a sign of ecosystem health, we are enriched by people from different backgrounds and life experiences. We actively seek out and ensure the participation of those who might not otherwise have the opportunity to visit this special place.
  • Integrity, transparency, and accountability
    We believe that integrity, transparency, and accountability are qualities that are important for building respect, and we aim to model a high degree of these qualities in all that we do, from wildlife rehabilitation to our interactions with the public to our internal organizational operations.
  • Responsible stewardship
    We are committed to the careful stewardship of all human, natural, and financial resources with which we are entrusted. We respect and thoughtfully use the time and talents of our staff and volunteers, we operate with a high degree of environmental responsibility, and we are strategic with our costs to ensure the wise use of funding received from donors and supporters.
  • Sustainability
    We are committed to minimizing our ecological footprint, both here at Woodford Cedar Run Wildlife Refuge and on the ecosystem of our region and planet.
  • Humor
    We understand the importance of being able to find laughter, and thus joy, in all things, thereby creating an uplifting and positive environment in which to work, volunteer, learn, and explore.

Environmental Education:
Cedar Run’s Education Team teaches young children about native wildlife and habitats in a classroom setting. 

Environmental Education:
Young children exploring and surrounded by nature – one of the best classrooms to teach about environmental education!

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Cedar Run seeks to educate, inspire, and instill a sense of stewardship in youth and residents throughout the region, leading to increased protection of our natural resources. We invite all people to respectfully experience our property and our programs. Just as biodiversity is a sign of ecosystem health, we are enriched by people from different backgrounds and life experiences.

At Cedar Run, a diverse, inclusive, and equitable organization is one where all visitors, employees, Trustees, and volunteers, whatever their gender, race, ethnicity, national origin, age, sexual orientation or identity, education, or disability, feel valued and respected.

We are committed to a nondiscriminatory approach and provide equal opportunity for employment and advancement in all of our departments and programs. We respect and value diverse life experiences and heritages and ensure that all voices are valued and heard. We are committed to modeling diversity and inclusion for the entire nature conservation sector, and to maintaining an inclusive environment with equitable treatment for all.

To provide informed, authentic leadership for cultural equity, Cedar Run strives to:

  • See diversity, inclusion, and equity as connected to our mission and critical to ensure the well-being of our visitors, staff, volunteers, Trustees, and the communities we serve.
  • Acknowledge and dismantle any inequities within our policies, systems, programs, and services, and continually update and report organization progress.
  • Explore potential underlying, unquestioned assumptions that interfere with inclusiveness.
  • Advocate for and support board-level thinking about how systemic inequities impact our organization’s work, and how best to address that in a way that is consistent with our mission.
  • Help to challenge assumptions about what it takes to be a strong leader at our organization, and who is well-positioned to provide leadership.
  • Practice and encourage transparent communication in all interactions.
  • Commit time and resources to expand more diverse leadership within our board, staff, committees, and advisory bodies.
  • Lead with respect and tolerance. We expect all employees to embrace this notion and to express it in workplace interactions and through everyday practices.

Cedar Run abides by the following action items to help promote diversity and inclusion in our workplace:

  • Pursue cultural competency throughout our organization by creating substantive learning opportunities and formal, transparent policies.
  • Generate and aggregate quantitative and qualitative research related to equity to make incremental, measurable progress toward the visibility of our diversity, inclusion, and equity efforts. Once the content is curated it will be added to our website so others can access.
  • Improve our cultural leadership pipeline by creating and supporting programs and policies that foster leadership that reflects the diversity of American society.
  • Pool resources and expand offerings for underrepresented constituents by connecting with other nature conservation organizations committed to diversity and inclusion efforts.
  • Develop a system for being more intentional and conscious of bias during the hiring, promoting, or evaluating process. Train our management team on equitable practices.
  • Provide clear guidelines to staff and Trustees for the reporting and proper handling of any issue that may arise relating to a breach in Cedar Run’s diversity, equity, and inclusion practices.