A proposed list of the state’s threatened animal and plant species is up for public comment.
The Species of Greatest Conservation Need list is the heart of the state’s Wildlife Action Plan, which is due for an update this year.
When completed, the Wildlife Action Plan will serve as a guide for landowners to help conserve species under threat. DNREC's Sam Robinson is the plan’s coordinator.
“From a spatial scale as small as a landowner to as large as DNREC or some of our larger landowners in the state, they can specifically look to this plan and see what they can do on their properties or in general to conserve the species that need help," she says.
Robinson says public input on the updated list is crucial to the plan’s success.
“It's not specifically DNREC’s plan. It's not specifically Fish and Wildlife’s plan," she says. "And so we want to make sure that anybody with an interest in the species of the state can have their thoughts heard.”
The proposed list has over 1,000 species on it, up from around 690 species ten years ago. Robinson says most of that increase is because the list contains plant species for the first time.
Among the threats facing species in the First State are climate change, and the rapid spread of invasive species.
“We had sections on emerging threats into the future and some of the invasive species that have come into the state in the last 10 years weren't even mentioned in the 2015 plan," Robinson says.
The Species of Greatest Conservation Need plan, and a public input form is online at de.gov/dewap.
Other parts of the Wildlife Action Plan will be released this summer and DNREC plans to host a series of public meetings to present the plan.
