Monthly Archives: October 2013

Action Alert: Mass Endangered Species Act

Posted on October 31, 2013 by Hillary T.

Eastern box turtle by Joy MarzolfEfforts to repeal the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act (MESA) are once again underway, and we need your help!

On Monday, November 4, the Joint Committee on Environment, Natural Resources and Agriculture will hold a hearing that includes two bills Mass Audubon strongly opposes. These bills would result in a repeal of endangered species protections in the Commonwealth.

Environmental groups and the business community alike have supported the standards the program currently uses to protect endangered species. The effort to gut endangered species protections is coming from a limited, but very vocal, few.

Both bills would:

  • Dismantle MESA’s Priority Habitat framework for protecting endangered species of plants and animals administered by the Division of Fisheries and Wildlife (DFW) Natural Heritage & Endangered Species Program.
  • Leave property owners with no advance notice of or ability to avoid harm to a state-listed species, leaving them potentially subject to fines and criminal prosecution for causing harm to that species. The existing permitting process, which takes into account the characteristics of each proposed development site, would be replaced by a costly and cumbersome regime that would rely on action against landowners after the harm to the protected species has occurred. Such a regime would not provide effective guidance to landowners or protect endangered species.

We urge you to contact Chairman Pacheco and Chairwoman Gobi today—by phone, email, or mail—to ask them to protect endangered species and halt Senate Bill 345 and Senate Bill 411.

In addition, you can let your own Representative and Senator know where you stand, and ask them to speak to the Chairs as well.

Please also express your support for An Act Relative to the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act, H.756. Mass Audubon supports this consensus bill, which would improve the Massachusetts Endangered Species Act rather than repeal it.

Find out who your legislators are and how to contact them.

Thank you for stepping up to protect endangered species!

Hearing details:
Monday, November 4, 2013
1:00 p.m.
Room A-2
State House
Boston, MA

A Different Kind of Nest

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Rosemary

Squirrel nestAs the trees lose their foliage, you may begin to notice large, round clumps of leaves in the branches. These are squirrel nests—also known as dreys.

In Massachusetts, eastern gray squirrels, red squirrels, and northern and southern flying squirrels all make dreys.

Eastern Gray Squirrel Nests

Eastern grays are large squirrels that thrive in urban and suburban environments. Not surprisingly, they make the biggest, most obvious nests. These structures can be a foot or two wide, and are usually located 20 feet or higher up a tree that provides good squirrel food, like an acorn-bearing oak. For stability, they’re built near the trunk or at the fork of two strong branches.

These scraggly-looking nests consist of leafy branches, with an inner layer of soft material like moss and pine needles. The squirrels enter the drey through a hole facing the trunk.

If you think that a ball of leaves in a tree sounds like a chilly place to spend the winter, you’re right. Eastern gray squirrels use dreys in summer, but they prefer to spend the cold months in a more protected place, like a tree cavity or an attic. (We’ve got tips for dealing with squirrels in your house.) If such permanent shelter isn’t available, they’ll stick with a drey, often gathering together to conserve heat.

Eastern gray squirrels use nests for shelter and warmth, especially at night, but they don’t hibernate in them—in fact, they don’t hibernate at all! They stay active year-round, searching for food that they hid during warmer weather. Also, one of their two mating seasons is in January and February.

Other Squirrel Nests

Red squirrels, which enjoy nibbling on pine cones, will often build their dreys in conifers. Like eastern grays, they’re active in the winter, and they also prefer tree cavities and other more permanent shelters during the cold months—but they’ll make do with tree nests if they have to.

The shy, secretive northern and southern flying squirrels also stay in dreys when cavities are scarce. They’ll either build their own, or use an abandoned bird’s nest or other squirrel’s nest.

Are there any squirrel drays in your neighborhood?