DEC Gears Up To Renew New York's Wildlife Action Plan
MANORVILLE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) -- Animal lovers say it's a race against the clock for endangered species in New York.
An urgent deadline is upon the state for a new 10-year plan to save threatened wildlife.
As CBS2's Jennifer McLogan reported, it was Endangered Animals Education Day at the Long Island Game Farm in Manorville, and East End parents flocked with their children to learn about their favorite animals now at risk.
Every 10 years, the state updates its Wildlife Action Plan. The Department of Environmental Protection must determine which -- among hundreds of species -- need the most help to survive.
"I think it's incredibly important because the more you know, the more you can help them," said instructor Emma Hallowell.
Hallowell calls it discouraging that many species common in 2005 -- the monarch butterfly, diamondback terrapin and box turtle -- now must be classified as "high priority intervention." She blames it on habitat destruction as farms and forests fast disappear.
"Progress for people, but it's harmful for animals," she said.
With environmental partners weighing in, the DEC will document the wild population and decide which species and types of habitats need urgent assistance, which groups will receive research money and present plans on how wildlife and humans in future generations can better coexist.
"We have lost a variety of animals including the bobcat, black bear, wolves, rattle snake -- all used to live on Long Island, but have been extirpated because of human impacts," said Marisa Nelson, with the Quogue Wildlife Refuge.
At the Quogue Wildlife Refuge, where they nurse endangered species and foster learning about the wild world around us, there is hope that the new animals list will bring about change.
"People really need to be alerted so that they can do something about it, because we can certainly make a difference still," said Nelson.
This is once in a decade plan paves the way for the state to get federal conservation grants in an effort to save the most vulnerable species.
