Duck stamp dollars buy 91 acres for eastern Massachusetts refuge

The Service has purchased 13 separate riverfront parcels from the Sudbury Valley Trustees and will manage them as part of the Assabet River National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts.

  See images and maps of the land purchased for the Assabet National Wildlife Refuge

Expanded Atlantic salmon protection proposed

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and NOAA-Fisheries are proposing to expand Endangered Species Act protection for wild Atlantic salmon in Maine as far as the Androscoggin River, including the entire Kennebec and Penobscot rivers. This year, from the Androscoggin north to the Dennys River, the area proposed for protection, only 2,000 salmon have returned to spawn.

  More on Gulf of Maine Atlantic salmon protection

Nearly $4.5 million to improve habitat for brook trout in seven Northeast Region states

The Service will provide $450,000 in aid, an amount matched nearly ten times over by contributions from conservation partners, to improve conditions for brook trout in the waters of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont and West Virginia. The funding will support ten projects restoring stream banks, re-opening miles of fish passage and addressing water quality issues.

  Complete project list
  More on the eastern brook trout

Squirrel glides off endangered list

The West Virginia northern flying squirrel has recovered from the brink of extinction and is ready to fly solo, according to Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne, who announced the squirrel’s removal from the endangered species list. After more than 20 years of monitoring the squirrel and an extensive habitat analysis, scientists are secure that the squirrel no longer requires federal protection.

  More about the West Virginia northern flying squirrel