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The Central Piedmont Chapter of Virginia Master Naturalists is offering its fifth community program, Our Wild Neighbors, Saturday, March 7, from 2 p.m. to 3 p.m., at the Barbara Rose Johns Farmville-Prince Edward Community Library.

This free program, which is open to the public, will feature a presentation by Sarah Cooperman, a wildlife rehabilitator with the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, located in Nelson County.

Sarah will be accompanied by several of the sanctuary’s ambassadors—Rosie, a black vulture; Scarlet, a Virginia opossum; and a corn snake named Autumn. The ambassadors are part of the sanctuary’s small group of medically non-releasable animals.

During her presentation, Sarah will not only share what it’s like to be a wildlife rehabilitator, but she will also talk about injured and/or orphaned wildlife and the challenges wildlife face in our more populated and urban areas.

Additionally, Sarah, with the help of her ambassadors, will provide information about the Rockfish Wildlife Sanctuary, which is a wonderful resource not only for the injured or orphaned native species that it rescues, rehabilitates, and releases, but also for their human neighbors.

A visit to the sanctuary’s website, www. rockfishwildlifesanctuary.org, quickly demonstrates its role in educating the public on when to rescue or intervene. The talk will also discuss how and when to contact the sanctuary for its assistance and will provide information about the habitats and needs of native wildlife here in Central Virginia.

The program is free to the public.