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Habitat Conservation for Wildlife ~ Especially New England Cottontail Rabbit

NRCS Announces Funding Available for the Working Lands for Wildlife Initiative to Conserve Habitat for Wildlife Species Including New England Cottontail Rabbit
May 1, 2015 Application Deadline
 
WARWICK, RI  (March 19, 2015)  –NRCS announced that funding is available for the Working Lands for Wildlife Initiative to conserve habitat for wildlife species including the New England cottontail rabbit.  Applications are accepted on a continuous basis throughout the year although May 1, 2015 is the application ranking period deadline for FY 2015. For FY 2015, NRCS continues an innovative Working Lands for Wildlife partnership to preserve working lands and conserve habitat for wildlife species including the New England cottontail rabbit. In 2012, NRCS and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service reached an historic agreement to extend wildlife conservation efforts on working agricultural lands that will provide long-term regulatory predictability for up to 30 years to RI farmers and forest landowners participating in the initiative. Participants voluntarily implement proven conservation practices designed to protect wildlife habitat such as the New England cottontail rabbit on private lands.

To learn more about the project and application process, please visit:

http://www.nrcs.usda.gov/wps/portal/nrcs/detail/ri/home/?cid=NRCSEPRD328593

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For additional information on the New England cottontail, see the section of the RI State Wildlife Action Plan, Species of Greatest Conservation Need (SGCN) Mammal Profiles, p.25, which also includes a map of its habitat. Map indicates territory is mainly along the coast in South County, plus the Narragansett Bay Estuarine Research Reserve on Prudence Island. One warning: the SGCN Mammal Profiles include many bats, which you might or might not consider cute, but the bunnies are very cute! Whatever we think about them, native animals are important to the balance of nature.