Recent News

Sharing the Science to Conserve New England’s Native Cottontail

January 25, 2018 — cfergus

By Charles Fergus

Federal, state, and university conservation partners met in Dover, N.H., January 17-19, 2018, to review progress in restoring the New England cottontail rabbit across its six-state range.

Good Forest Management Yields Wildlife Oasis

January 23, 2018 — cfergus

By Justin Fritscher, for #Fridaysonthefarm, an online publication of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)

Prescribed Burning in Mashpee, MA, To Improve New England Cottontail Habitat

January 06, 2018 — cfergus

By Sam Houghton, Mashpee Enterprise

Mashpee is the recipient of a $24,000 grant to fund a prescribed burn of the Holland Mills Pine Barren. The Baker-Polito Administration announced the grant on January 3.

Conservation Success Story: A CT Landowner’s Perspective

December 13, 2017 — cfergus

By Denise Coffey, Hartford Courant

When Tom McAvoy moved into a 1760 farmhouse on 115 acres in Scotland, Connecticut, his goal was to restore the land to what it looked like when it was a working dairy farm.

McAvoy had a soft spot in his heart for the land. His friend's grandparents owned it, and McAvoy and his friend used to hunt there when they were younger.

Cottontail’s Life No Hop in the Park

December 11, 2017 — cfergus

By Diane Valden for The Columbia Paper

COPAKE, NY — The life of a rabbit is no hop in the park.

That's especially true if the rabbit is a New England cottontail, a "species of special concern," numbering only 10,000 to 15,000 in existence across its range.

Helping Turkeys Boosts Other Wild Animals’ Populations

November 24, 2017 — cfergus

By Jason Bittel, OnEarth, Natural Resources Defense Council

Red-cockaded woodpeckers, New England cottontails, and eagles can thank turkeys (and conservationists) for saving their homes

Helping Connecticut’s Native Cottontail Rabbits

November 16, 2017 — cfergus

By Andrea Petrullo, Connecticut Department of Energy and Environmental Protection

There's plenty of good news out of Connecticut, where conservationists are working hard to help New England cottontails and other young forest wildlife sharing the habitat with the state’s native cottontail rabbit.

Rabbit Leavings

Throughout most of New England and eastern New York, biologists, field technicians, volunteers, and private landowners have joined forces in a regional monitoring program to locate populations of New England cottontails.

Audubon NY Publishes Guide for Forest Bird Habitat

November 15, 2017 — cfergus

Innovative guide offers comprehensive habitat management
tools for private and public New York land managers

How a Forest Creates and Re-Creates Itself

November 12, 2017 — cfergus

By Joe Rankin in the Burlington, VT, Free Press

A few years ago, I started an observational experiment in forest succession on a couple of acres where we once pastured sheep and goats. Rocky and wet, without livestock, the land was hard to keep cleared. So I let the forest recreate itself and just watched the process unfold.

It’s a process that has taken place across much of the Northeast since the mid-1800s.

Poorer Health in Migrating Catbirds That Eat Fruits from Invasives?

November 02, 2017 — cfergus

Need another reason to get rid of non-native, invasive shrubs and to plant or otherwise encourage native shrubs in your yard or when conducting a habitat management project?

A recent study (see attachment below) by scientists compared the health of migrating gray catbirds -- primarily berry and fruit feeders -- that spend time in habitats where mostly exotic berries are available, such as those from non-native bush honeysuckle and autumn olive, versus habitats where they can fuel up on native berries like spicebush, winterberry, and gray dogwood.

Pages