The rare New England cottontail rabbit and other shrubland species are getting some new help from the U.S. Fish and wildlife Service. The agency is targeting 15,000 acres of land in six northeastern states, to be included in a new “Great Thickets National Wildlife Refuge.”
It’s been almost 15 years since environmentalists – and others – noticed a decline in the shrub-loving New England cottontail. Since then a growing, multi-state conservation effort has been undertaken to try to prevent further decline. It’s shown some success in identifying and preserving rabbit habitat- and last year the federal government decided against listing the rabbits as an endangered or threatened species.
They thrive in young forests, and now the fish and wildlife service says it will dedicate as much as 130 million dollars, over time, to acquire land or easements from willing landowners in five of the six New England states, plus New York, to expand protected habitats by some 15,000 acres.
“The Great Thickets Project really started as all great projects do pretty much at the grass roots level,” said Scott Kahan, the agency’s chief of refuges for the Northeast. He says the scope of the effort to “move the needle” as he puts it, which includes a broad array of government agencies, conservation groups, and lands in six states, is unique.
“When we think about providing habitat for wildlife, we really need to think about it in terms of these bigger geographies in terms of where that habitat needs to be located to help protect and to keep some of these common species common and to help recover some of the ones that are more rare,” said Kahan.
Threatened and endangered species that will also benefit include bog turtles and the Massachusetts population of red-bellied cooters.
This report comes from the New England News Collaborative. Eight public media companies coming together to tell the story of a changing region, with support from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
