Four important wildlife refuges in the United States will be greatly expanded to improve endangered species protections, the US government announced last week.
The US Department of the Interior says it has authorized new land acquisitions and easements to secure protections for vulnerable species. The new measures will enable the conservation of “up to 1.13 million acres of wildlife habitat in New Mexico, North Carolina and Texas,” DOI announced.
“Today’s announcements are the culmination of longstanding partnerships with states, conservation partners, and local communities to conserve and restore vital landscapes that are important to all of us and numerous fish and wildlife species,” US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) director Martha Williams said.
Among the refuges growing in size is the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge, home of the endangered whooping crane, one of the first species to be listed for protection under America’s Endangered Species Act. The Aransas Refuge is located in southeast Texas near the city of Corpus Christi.
New land conservation at Aransas and Big Boggy National Wildlife Refuge adds protections to nearly 150,000 additional acres (over 60,000 hectares) of Gulf of Mexico coastal wetlands and prairies in Texas. The measures will also expand the area of protected habitat for the critically endangered Attwater’s prairie chicken, DOI said.
Muleshoe National Wildlife Refuge in Texas and New Mexico is also being expanded under DOI’s plan. At 700,000 acres of new conserved land (over 283,000 hectares) the expansion at Muleshoe is the largest wildlife refuge expansion in DOI’s latest announcement.
The department says Muleshoe is the older national wildlife refuge in Texas. Its expansion in both Texas and New Mexico is occurring “to support sandhill crane, pronghorn, and lesser prairie chicken, as well as a full suite of other wildlife that rely on the grasslands, playa wetlands, and saline lake habitats of the Central Grasslands.”
A wildlife refuge in North Carolina, Roanoke River National Wildlife Refuge, is also expanding to afford better protections to bald eagles, waterfowl, and an endangered species of fish, DOI and FWS said.
The Department of the Interior says the expansion of protected areas at these national wildlife refuges is in keeping with President Joe Biden’s “America the Beautiful” initiative meant to expand conservation and restore existing protected areas, including national parks. Under the same program, two new national wildlife refuges were recently added to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s portfolio of protected lands and waters.
Interior said the announcement of expanded protected areas at four national wildlife refuges just marks a continuation of the same initiative.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the Service has added over 500,000 acres through willing seller land acquisition and conservation easements. With today’s expansions, this Administration has approved the potential to acquire more than 1.6 million acres in fee-title and easements across the Refuge System through voluntary action.
Fish and Wildlife oversees 571 national wildlife refuges across the United States.
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