Focus Areas Guide a Cottontail Comeback

Wildlife scientists continue to look for New England cottontails, surveying likely habitat across the species' range. Using data on forest age, shrubland, and the presence of New England cottontails, as well as land ownership and development patterns, conservationists have identified a network of Focus Areas where habitat can be protected, created, renewed, and maintained to help these native rabbits thrive.

Focus areas have been designated in the following states and counties:

Connecticut: all counties
Maine: York and Cumberland counties
Massachusetts: Nantucket, Dukes, Barnstable, Plymouth, Berkshire, and Hampden counties
New Hampshire: Stratford, Rockingham, and Hillsborough counties
New York: Rensselaer, Columbia, Dutchess, Putnam, and Westchester counties
Rhode Island: Providence, Kent, Washington, and Newport counties

Click on the map below for a regional perspective.