The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced today it has designated the New England cottontail as a candidate for Endangered Species Act protection. The announcement was published in today's "Federal Register? as part of the annual Candidate Notice of Review, an appraisal of the list of plants and animals that may warrant protection under the Act.
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; The announcement today serves as a response to a petition requesting protection under the Act filed by the Biodiversity Legal Foundation, Conservation Action Project, Endangered Small Animals Conservation Fund and Defenders of Wildlife in 2000. The Service has completed a comprehensive review ? known as a 12-month finding ? and determined that there is sufficient scientific and commercial data to propose protecting the species as endangered or threatened throughout its range. However, the Service is precluded from beginning work immediately on a proposal to provide protection under the Act because its limited resources must be devoted to other, higher priority actions. When a ?warranted but precluded? finding is made for a species, the Service classifies it as a candidate.
"Placing the New England cottontail on the candidate list give us an opportunity to work with partners and citizens to take conservation measures before the species is given full federal protection," said Marvin Moriarty, Northeast regional director for the Service. "This species is an important part of New England's natural heritage, and we all have a responsibility to preserve and protect it.?
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; While the eastern cottontail and the New England cottontail bear a strong resemblance to each other, New England cottontails are a little smaller and darker. New England cottontail historic range has declined by approximately 75 percent since 1960. Due to destruction or modification of its habitat and competition from the eastern cottontail, a non-native species, the available habitat has been reduced to small, disconnected patches of young forests. Today, the rabbit is found in eastern New York and in several counties in Connecticut, Rhode Island, western Massachusetts, southern New Hampshire and southern coastal Maine. However, the populations that occur in these states are small and isolated. The cottontail once occurred in Vermont, but the species has not been reported there since 1971.
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; For further information about the New England cottontail, see http://www.fws.gov/northeast/pdf/necotton.fs.pdf
; The national news release on the Candidate Notice of Review is at http://www.fws.gov/news. The "Federal Register? notice may be seen at http://a257.g.akamaitech.net/7/257/2422/01jan20061800/edocket.access.gpo.gov/2006/pdf/06-7375.pdf
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, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.
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