Recently, U.S. Assistant Secretary of the Interior for Fish and Wildlife and Parks Shannon Estenoz visited Florida to mark the 50th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act.
Estenoz visited Elgin Air Force Base in Niceville to “celebrate the recovery and delisting of the Okaloosa darter” last week.
“The Okaloosa darter was first listed as an endangered species in 1973 and reclassified as threated in 2011. Following decades of collaborative conservation efforts led by the Eglin Air Force Base and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, more than 200 miles of stream have been restored and darters are thriving in flowing, clean waters,” the Interior Department noted.
Estenoz and the National Alliance of Forest Owners (NAFO) also “visited the site where a threatened species — the flatwood salamander – will be released on land managed by private landowners.”
“The action follows a Wildlife Conservation Initiative Memorandum of Understanding signed by the USFWS, NAFO and the National Association of National Council for Air and Stream Improvement, Inc. in March. The MOU will help advance conservation of at-risk and listed species within private working forests nationwide, and it represents a tremendous step forward in collaborative, partnership-driven conservation,” the Interior Department noted. “This work is a critical part of the America the Beautiful initiative, a decade-long challenge to pursue a locally led and voluntary, nationwide effort to conserve, connect, and restore the lands, waters, and wildlife upon which we all depend.”
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