Boston Flora

Tag: Massachusetts Endangered Species Act

  • MassWildlife’s Habitat Restoration

    MassWildlife leads a restoration project on state land in Belchertown to provide habitat for rare plants and wildlife, game birds, and other wildlife. Recent visitors to MassWildlife’s Herman Covey Wildlife Management Area (WMA) in Belchertown may have noticed increased forestry activities. These activities are part of a multi-year large-scale natural community restoration project designed to improve habitat for wildlife on the WMA and enhance recreation opportunities. At the same time, this project benefits Northampton’s Cooley Dickinson Hospital in the form of renewable locally-sourced energy to power their facility.

    The natural communities of woodlands, barrens, and grasslands that are being created at Herman Covey WMA will provide excellent habitat for game birds like ruffed grouse and wild turkey, less common birds such as eastern towhee and prairie warbler, and the rarer eastern whip-poor-will which is listed under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. These species thrive in open and sunlit environments with sandy and loamy soils. Unfortunately, these habitats are declining due to development and an interruption of the natural processes like wild fires that once kept them open. In response, the plants and wildlife that depend on these same habitats to survive and thrive have also declined. 

    After a thorough evaluation and planning process, MassWildlife developed a habitat management plan for the Herman Covey WMA to restore open habitats. The initial phase of this habitat restoration began in 2015 with invasive plant control, mowing, and replanting of native warm season grasses. To learn more, visit https://www.mass.gov/news/habitat-restoration-benefits-wildlife-and-local-hospital

  • Common Loon Hatch

    MassWildlife reports the first common loon hatched in southeastern Massachusetts in over a century.

    In early July, the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (MassWildlife) and the Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) confirmed that a common loon chick hatched in Fall River this spring. Until this year, loons had not hatched in southeastern Massachusetts in over a century! BRI, a non-profit ecological research group based in Maine, has been partnering with MassWildlife to restore common loons to Massachusetts. This historic hatchling is an exciting result of a multi-year loon restoration initiative.  

    In 2015, in partnership with MassWildlife, the Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife, Maine Audubon, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Ricketts Foundation, BRI relocated loon chicks from Maine and New York (where loons have a robust population) to the Assawompset Pond Complex in Lakeville, Massachusetts. Historically, loons nested in this area before the species was extirpated as a breeding bird in Massachusetts in the late 1800s. The hope was that translocated loon chicks successfully fledging in southeastern Massachusetts would return to that region to breed as adults in 4–6 years, thereby establishing a new breeding population in the state. The male in the Fall River nesting pair, one of the chicks originally translocated from NY, did just that.  

    Common loons (Gavia immer) are currently listed as a species of special concern under the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. Once loons fledge from freshwater lakes, they migrate to wintering grounds on the ocean. As young adults, they return to the area where they hatched to join the breeding population. The loons that were translocated from Maine and New York as chicks are now beginning to return to their release sites in Massachusetts as breeding adults. For more on endangered species conservation in Massachusetts, click here to learn about MassWildlife’s Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program.

  • Wednesday, June 6, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Rare Plants of Massachusetts

    From its calcareous cobbles to its coastal plains, Massachusetts has a broad diversity of eco-regions and is home to 1,814 species of native plants. Of these, 254 (or 14%) are vulnerable to extinction and protected by the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act. Even more are species of conservation concern.  On Wednesday, June 6, from 7 – 8:30, get a valuable overview of these many vulnerable plants and the threats they face — from habitat destruction to invasive plants to climate change. We have significant challenges ahead of us if we are to ensure their survival. The program is sponsored by Grow Native Massachusetts and will take place at the Cambridge Public Library, 449 Broadway.  The program is free.    Speaker Bryan Connolly is the State Botanist for the Massachusetts Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program.