New England Cottontail

From USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System:

This New England cottontail has a new home not far from Ninigret National Wildlife Refuge, RI. Captive bred at Roger Williams Park Zoo in Providence, two cottontails were moved to a fenced area on the refuge where they grew large enough to support a radio collar that will track their movements. The rabbits learned to forage and survive in a wild setting before being moved to Patience Island, where scientists are establishing a new population of the rabbit. The New England cottontail is the region’s only native rabbit and is a candidate for listing under the Endangered Species Act. More here http://usfwsnortheast.wordpress.com/2014/12/22/down-the-rabbit-hole/

Vanished Rabbit Reappears on Central California's Dos Rios Ranch

From USDA:

Posted by Dave Sanden, Natural Resources Conservation Service, California, on December 2, 2014 at 10:00 AM

The riparian brush rabbit is state and federally endangered, with all known populations in the northern San Joaquin Valley facing significant threat of extinction. Declines of brush rabbits have largely been attributed to loss of habitat. Photo courtesy USFWS Pacific Southwest Region.

Some exciting news recently came from a large wetlands restoration project now underway in Central California. River Partners, a nonprofit conservation organization, documented the first occurrence of a state and federally endangered rabbit on its habitat preserve at Dos Rios Ranch, a key piece of riverfront habitat located at the confluence of the Tuolumne and San Joaquin rivers in Stanislaus County.

Thanks to a generous loan of wildlife cameras from a professor at the University of California, Davis, River Partners’ summer interns captured images of riparian brush rabbits at Dos Rios Ranch in July in remnant riparian habitat along the Tuolumne River. Riparian brush rabbits are a critically endangered subspecies of rabbit that was thought to be extinct following catastrophic flooding in 1997.

“This rabbit was photographed over a mile away and across the river from known populations,” said Julie Rentner of River Partners. “The nearby San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge hosts a thriving population of reintroduced riparian brush rabbits, but there has been no proof that the rabbits were at Dos Rios Ranch since 1997. The camera is still set up and is capturing additional images, so we’ll certainly turn up more if there are more rabbits out there.”

The multi-million dollar wetlands restoration efforts on Dos Rios Ranch began in 2012. The land was enrolled in the former Wetlands Reserve Program, or WRP, a conservation easement program offered by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service, (NRCS). Easement programs offer landowners the means to restore, enhance and protect wetlands on their property through easements. The 2014 Farm Bill merged WRP with other easement programs to form a new one: the Agricultural Conservation Easements Program, (ACEP), which continues to further wetlands restoration.

The project’s main objectives include restoring the riparian corridor, providing a critical link between this easement and other USDA easements, establishing self-sustaining native plant communities, and providing riparian habitat for wildlife. The property had been used for agricultural production for over a century. This project transforms it back into its former glory as a wetland. NRCS is working with the landowner, River Partners, to design and implement the project and is actively managing and monitoring the restoration process.

The 1,150-acre project area contains remnant floodplain habitats that include wetlands, riparian woodlands and agricultural lands. The 1,600-acre Dos Rios Ranch property was purchased by River Partners in 2012 with funding from seven local, state and federal funding partners for use as a flood management and wildlife habitat project.

“Restoration work is progressing using a phased approach,” said NRCS wildlife biologist Karl Kraft.

Currently, about 500 acres are being restored. Work on 137 acres began in spring 2013. The second phase began in fall 2013 on 384 more acres, and the third phase will begin in 2015, Kraft said.

“More than 944 acres will be retired from production and restored to riparian habitat when the work is complete,” he said. “Numerous wildlife species should benefit from the restoration, including the federally endangered riparian brush rabbit, riparian woodrat, least bell’s vireo, and threatened valley elderberry longhorn beetle,” Kraft said.

Trees, such as black willow, and other native woody species are being planted in rows, much like an orchard, with planting berms and space between the rows for native grasses and forbs. Furrow irrigation between the planted rows is used to apply water to plantings in the initial growing seasons.

Rabbit foraging areas of low herbaceous plants such as Spanish clover, gumplant and native grasses have been established adjacent to patches of clover near the tree plantings. Dense thickets of California wildrose and blackberry established away from trees will offer protection against hawks and other predators.

Some areas of dense, low growing vegetation have been established on elevated ground, known as “bunny mounds,” to provide rabbits cover and flood protection. Kraft said that five of these bunny mounds have been constructed so far.

“The riparian brush rabbit was a primary reason for protecting and restoring the ranch,” said Dean Kwasny, easement programs specialist with NRCS. “It’s encouraging to see that our conservation efforts are having tangible benefits for this focal species.”

Forest Service Wildlife Biologist Works to Conserve Fishers, Civil War History

USDA Blog Post:

Posted by Beverly Carroll, Office of Communication, U.S. Forest Service, on December 2, 2013 at 4:30 PM

U.S. Forest Service biologist Betsy Howell is highlighted in Faces of the Forest, a special feature by the agency. (Courtesy Betsy Howell)

Betsy Howell has a professional and personal interest in conserving two diverse parts of U.S. history.

As a wildlife biologist on the Olympic National Forest in Washington State she focuses part of her work on the history and future of the fisher, a member of the weasel family considered threatened and endangered.

As a Civil War re-enactor and author, she works to preserve an integral part of our history as a nation.

“As a district biologist, I survey for different wildlife species including bald eagles, amphibians, fishers and martens,” she said. “I’m fortunate that a fair bit of my job involves field work, and I continue to be involved in remote camera survey work though the technology has changed tremendously since 1991.”

One of her most important projects is with the Olympic Peninsula Fisher Reintroduction Project, a multi-agency effort to reintroduce the fisher, a small member of the mustelid, or weasel, family.

“The work began after researchers had determined that fishers had become extirpated, that is locally extinct, on the peninsula, due to over trapping and habitat removal,” Howell said. “Through the use of remote cameras, we are now monitoring to see if they have become a self-sustaining population. We’re also partnering with Adventurers and Scientists for Conservation, a non-profit organization out of Bozeman, Mont., to determine if the Pacific marten, another mustelid, has also become extirpated from the peninsula.”

When not setting up remote cameras, Howell spends her spare time, usually before work and on weekends, writing essays on travel and natural history. She published a memoir about her father and great-great-grandfather and their lives as soldiers.

“My great-great-grandfather, James Heath, served as a private in the Union Army and kept journals during that time from 1862-1865,” she said. “My father, born in 1920, actually knew this man when he was a little boy and when he grew older was given James’ journals. Now they’re mine.”

The memoir became about their war experiences and how it impacted her life. But she found couldn’t leave the Civil War behind, so she started a novel.

“It has taken six years. Again, it’s hard to leave behind characters I’ve become so fond of, so now I’m working on a second novel told from the point of view of a minor character from the first novel,” she said.

Howell is one of a number of Forest Service employees highlighted in Faces of the Forest, a feature that introduces the public to the people, places and professions in the agency.

Betsy Howell started her career in 1986 as a spotted owl surveyor on the Mount Hood National Forest in Oregon. After graduation, she moved to the Siskiyou National Forest in Southwest Oregon and became a permanent employee. During her early career, Howell took a leave of absence to work for the Peace Corps. (FS photo)