The endangered U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners, will break ground and begin construction of a new aviary.
About one acre at the Caribbean National Forest (commonly known as El Yunque) will be used to relocate operations from an old military installation to a state-of-the-art facility at a cost of roughly $2.5 million. The facility will have a nursery, hospital, hurricane room, kitchen and outdoor cages. Congress appropriated $1.7 million to build the aviary. Additional funds will come from private donations and other partners. As part of their continued partnership with the Service, the l and other organizations are working to raise the necessary funds.
The Service is working closely with the Puerto Rico Department of Natural and Environmental Resources and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System that encompasses 544 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 70 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices, and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores national significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Aid program that distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
More information and photos go to http://southeast.fws.gov/prparrot/
