The proposed State Wildlife Action Plan, known as SWAP, meant to protect rare and declining wildlife species, is now available for public comment. The deadline for comment is Friday, July 17.

The State’s Department of Environmental Conservation, which developed the plan, will hold public information sessions throughout the state in June to present the draft and accept public comment.  A session will be held on June 24, from 6 to 9 p.m., at the Albany Pine Bush Discovery Center on New Karner Road.

“The State Wildlife Action Plan will help guide DEC’s work to protect and restore wildlife, and ensure that these precious natural resources are conserved for future generations,” said Commissioner Joe Martens in a release from the DEC. “The SWAP is a 10-year plan to protect rare and declining wildlife species that is being developed to update the 2005 Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy.  At the upcoming meetings, DEC staff and conservation partners will present projects carried out through the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy to conserve species of conservation need and propose actions that all of us can do to help protect these species.” 

The draft 10-year plan identifies 366 Species of Greatest Conservation Need in New York, including the moose, least tern, northern diamond-backed terrapin, eastern spadefoot toad, lake sturgeon, barndoor skate, humpback whale, brook snaketail, and barrens buckmoth.

Of those 366, there are 167 species that are identified as high priority, including little brown bats, spruce grouse, Blanding’s turtle, queen snake, American eel, sauger, winter flounder, horseshoe crab, dwarf wedgemussel, and American bumblebee.  An additional 113 species are seen as possibly needing conservation actions, including least weasel, mink frog, tiger shark, Scotia sallfly, and monarch butterfly. Surveys will help determine their current population status.

To update the draft, DEC staff and conservation partners assessed the current status of 597 rare and declining species in New York. The assessment included the location and condition of habitats where the species live, threats to the populations and conservation actions to help maintain healthy populations.

The most common threats to these species are loss of habitat, pollution, invasive species and climate change.  Recommended conservation actions include protection and restoration of habitat, management of threatened populations and monitoring to maintain current data on them.