The Raleigh Raptor Refuge, a project of the American Wildlife Refuge based in Rolesville, has asked Apex to consider leasing land within the future Environmental Education and Nature Park to be located on Apex Barbecue Road.

Construction of the park is expected to begin in 2011.

Details of a possible arrangement between the town and the Raleigh Raptor Refuge have not yet been discussed, said Mayor Keith Weatherly.

But he said that town officials are encouraged by the organization's interest in relocating here.

"We have high hopes that it will work out," Weatherly said. "I think all of us will welcome the center, and I think that the location would be an ideal one."

The American Wildlife Refuge is the brainchild of John Barkas, a Midwesterner whose love of nature and all things in it led him to spend years working at zoos, aquariums and traveling circus acts across the country.

Steve Stone, the current director of the refuge, said that Barkas eventually settled in North Carolina - first in the mountains, then in Raleigh.

Barkas participated in environmental education shows at the North Carolina State Fair every year and worked closely with the youth organization 4-H.

"All his life, he had taken care of animals," Stone said. "It's what he loved."

Barkas died in 2001, months after AWR was recognized as a tax-exempt organization by the Internal Revenue Service.

Stone said the organization, which has grown from a one-man band to a group with a six-person board of directors, still believes in Barkas' vision to rescue and rehabilitate raptors - meat-eating birds that hunt with sharp talons, strong hooked beaks and their feet - and educate the public about the animals.

"We take care of the birds now, just as he always did," Stone said. "Our goal is to care for and rescue as many as possible and teach as many people about them as we can so they don't do stupid things to get them hurt."

Birds currently in the American Wildlife Refuge's care represent most locally indigenous types of raptors.

Each "resident" of the refuge has its own story of tragedy.

For example, Beanca is a 42-year-old Russian Steppe eagle that was permanently injured when she was 2.

Her right wing was shattered.

But the bones were repaired with pins and wires.

She can only fly short distances and can't hunt on her own.

Beanca lived with Barkas for more than 30 years.

When Barkas died, the refuge took her in.

Beanca won't let strangers touch her.

But she will let people stand close and have their pictures taken with her.

Buckshot, a 21-pound great horned owl, is so named because he was shot full of buckshot from a hunter's shotgun.

He still has nine pieces of shotgun pellet in his body, and the blast ripped the iris in his right eye.

Buckshot also has a damaged wing, probably from being unable to see properly and crashing into something.

One of the pellets is lodged in the frontal lobe of his brain, so he is much calmer than a typical great horned owl.

Numerous other raptors - such as Hiss, a great horned owl, and Klik Klak, a barred owl - were injured by cars and suffer from things such as blindness and broken wings.

AWR maintains a public center on Morgan Street near downtown Raleigh, where it holds events.

But it keeps the injured raptors on private sites throughout the county.

Should the town and the organization strike a deal, Stone said the refuge would be renamed the Apex Raptor Refuge to reflect its new home.

"We think it would be a great addition to the town," Stone said.