By Cynthia Drummond of The Westerly Sun
PROVIDENCE — The New England cottontail, the region’s only native rabbit and the inspiration for the Thornton Burgess’s “The Adventures of Peter Cottontail,” has become so rare that there are just a few remnant populations in Rhode Island.
But a multiyear conservation plan involving the federal and several state governments, scientists, foresters, farmers and others is attempting to prevent the New England cottontail from disappearing altogether.