AMITY — It was a vision of apple orchards and of a spruce- and pine-lined rural area that drew Arthur Howell to Maine and ultimately to Lycette Road in Amity 14 years ago.

Today, that vision has turned into perhaps one of the most successful wildlife education and rehabilitation centers in Maine, if not the entire Northeast.

The A.E. Howell Wildlife Conservation Center and Spruce Acres Refuge boasts one of the most successful rehabilitation records anywhere. It also has one of the most extensive collections of wildlife education videotapes and printed materials, supplying programs and materials to more than 50 schools across the state.

But the early years were ones of struggle, with Howell and his family picking up the tab to operate the 70-acre facility, including the care and feeding of sick and injured animals and birds, and providing shelter for them.

But that is not the case anymore. “Some exciting things have happened to us,” says Howell.

Today the center is a fully recognized nonprofit conservation and educational organization with governing officers, a board of directors and a local advisory board.

A $210,000 conservation and education center is already one-quarter completed, thanks in large part to the efforts of local volunteers.

The center recently received more than $30,000 in grants, including a $20,000 grant from the Davis Conservation Center in Falmouth and a $10,000 grant from the Leonard X. Bosach and Bette M. Krueger Charitable Foundation

in Washington, the latter to be used to construct a clinic for migratory

birds in the new conservation center building.

Of the grants, Howell says they finally “believe we are for real and recognize us for the quality work we’re doing here.”

And there is plenty of recognition.

A group of game wardens in New Brunswick praised Howell’s efforts for aiding six orphaned bear cubs from that province and making them strong enough to be returned to the wild.

They wrote that Howell’s facility “is the only one of its kind in this part of North America that (we) know of that takes wildlife in and raises them to a healthy condition in an atmosphere as close to … what they would get in the wild.”

So successful has Howell been with bears, in fact, that game officials in Arizona contacted him this summer on how to care for an orphaned bear cub that had been burned in a forest fire.

Howell also is considered the No. 1 bald eagle handler in the state, thanks to his successful effort to rehabilitate three bald eagles that were brought to the refuge.

One thing that hasn’t changed, however, is Howell’s almost uncanny ability to get donations of supplies and equipment for the refuge, a skill left over from the early days of the refuge.

Recent donations have included fresh-frozen fish from the Stinson Seafood Co. in Bath for the refuge’s eagles and otter; carpeting from the Dunn Furniture Co. in Houlton for the shelter of an otter recovering from surgery; and a heating system from the Dead River Co. for the new educational center.

Then there are the 2,000 live mealworms from Ohio and 5,000 live crickets, all to take care of a bluebird that has a permanently injured leg.

The bird was found by a woman in southern Maine who sends Howell $10 every month for the care of “the little bluebird,” as she calls it.

Some people have gone out of their way to cause problems for the refuge, however, and Howell has had to close it to visitors, except by appointment.

Howell said people have thrown sticks and rocks at the animals, tried to feed them, damaged animal pens and ripped branches from trees.