National Wildlife Federation ranks DC among top 10 cities for wildlife

The National Wildlife Federation (NWF), a nonprofit conservation education and advocacy organization, recently ranked Washington among the top 10 cities in the U.S. recognized for “taking concrete steps to address” challenges urban areas impose on local wildlife.

The District has undertaken various wildlife conservation efforts initiated by local organizations and the DC Department of Energy & Environment (DOEE).

“We have a lot of good habitat in the city,” said Jim Monsma, executive director of City Wildlife, an animal rescue and rehabilitation organization in DC. “So there’s quite a bit of wildlife in the city and always has been.”

DC made its way to the 10th spot on the list, in part, because of its efforts to protect waterways and parklands, according to NWF, which evaluated 100 of the nation’s largest cities. The city also received a top-10 ranking on the group’s 2015 list.

Monsma said that there is a strong network of nonprofits that work with the DC government to preserve and enhance wildlife. Some of the wildlife species in the District include bald eagles, bats, foxes and owls.

City Wildlife, which receives DOEE funding, was launched in 2013, becoming the first wildlife rehabilitation center within the District, according to its website. Others are located in suburban Maryland and Northern Virginia.

In the past six years, the District has given more than $1 million to City Wildlife, according to an email sent to The DC Line by Jeffrey Seltzer, acting deputy director of DOEE’s Natural Resources Administration.

Monsma said the vast majority of the animals the group rescues have been subjected to dangerous conditions caused by people. Such threats to wildlife include lawnmowers, pesticides and glass windows, which pose a collision hazard for birds.

He said residents who volunteer for the organization care for injured animals, assist with other rehabilitation efforts and engage in community outreach.

“Residents are very, very pleased with the wildlife here in the District and want it to thrive,”  said Ward 3 DC Council member Mary Cheh, who chairs the Committee on Transportation and the Environment.

DOEE’s Fisheries and Wildlife Division has also contributed to wildlife conservation through efforts such as preserving habitat and protecting species, Cheh said.

In Seltzer’s email, the DOEE listed the passage of the Fisheries and Wildlife Omnibus Amendment Act of 2015 as one of the achievements that has contributed to wildlife conservation. The act, which went into effect in 2017, “authorizes the Mayor to draft and enforce rules to restrict, prohibit, regulate, and control the sale, possession, exhibition, hunting, fishing, and taking of wildlife in the District.”

An earlier law, the Wildlife Protection Act of 2010, restricted the capture, handling and transport of wildlife. The act defines wildlife as “any free-roaming wild animal,” although it excludes rodents that live near people, invertebrates, fish and domestic animals.

In 2015, DOEE updated its Wildlife Action Plan, making 89 additions to a list of species most in need of conservation. The additions include the red-headed woodpecker, the tri-colored bat and the striped skunk.

The species in greatest need of conservation are categorized into three tiers, “based on ability to implement species and habitat conservation strategies, available resources, estimated economic feasibility, and the expectation of a reasonable chance of improving conservation status,” the plan states.

The first tier features species that have been observed in more than one location or habitat, the second features species that have been observed rarely in recent times and the third features species that have been documented historically but not observed recently.

Of the 89 additions, 42 percent are in tier one, 55 percent are in tier two and 3 percent are in tier three.

Tommy Lawrence, managing director of Earth Conservation Corps, a local environmental service organization that incorporates youth engagement into its work, believes DC’s successes in wildlife conservation are attributable to efforts to protect green spaces.

Earth Conservation Corps, which is committed to restoration efforts in the Anacostia River, is an affiliate partner of NWF.

The National Park Service and DC’s Department of Parks and Recreation “have made an effort to really protect green areas,” Lawrence said in an interview.

By 2032, the DC government aims to have a healthy tree canopy cover 40 percent of the District when measured from above. The District’s new Sustainable DC 2.0 plan, released last week, highlights the recent history of tree plantings in the city — 12,441 in 2017, up from 9,893 in 2016 but down from 15,044 in 2015. The plan says that the DC government itself will “plant and maintain” 10,500 trees annually.

As to the current tree canopy, there’s some disagreement. Last year, The Washington Post reported that federal researchers disputed the city’s analysis that determined the forest area in the District grew from 35.1 to 38.7 percent from 2006 to 2016. A study by U.S. Forest Service scientists David Nowak and Eric Greenfield concluded instead that Washington lost 850 acres, or about 2 percent, of tree cover between 2010 and 2015.

There’s greater consensus on other aspects of the District’s conservation efforts to protect the diversity of wildlife in DC — 240 species of birds, 78 fish, 32 mammals, 21 reptiles, 19 amphibians and thousands of invertebrates, according to the Sustainable DC 2.0 plan.

Lawrence, who said he wasn’t surprised that Washington made it onto the NWF list, noted the work done to restore bald eagles, which were removed from the federal list of threatened and endangered species in 2007.

Decades ago, bald eagles were near extinction largely because so many fish — their primary food source — were contaminated by DDT, a powerful insecticide that polluted waterways. Bald eagle populations began to rise again in part due to a 1972 federal ban on DDT.

Bald eagles have become a point of fascination for many local enthusiasts, who track bald eagles in the District via webcams and eagerly monitor news of any hatchlings. Experts said that there will likely be no baby eagles born in the District this year, the Post reported. Justice, one of DC’s bald eagles, went missing from his nest for weeks earlier this year in a saga chronicled in the news media and on social platforms.

David Culver, a retired American University environmental science professor, is also not surprised that Washington was featured on the list, since there is an abundance of “public will” to take on conservation efforts.

Culver has conducted research in Rock Creek Park on the Hay’s spring amphipod, a small aquatic crustacean that resembles a tiny shrimp. The Hay’s spring amphipod is DC’s only endangered species.

Culver said that amphipods living in the park, which he described as a “reservoir of biodiversity,” have been able to survive for many years because they reside in a protected area.

Researchers believe that the health of the amphipod population mirrors the health of the forest, he said. He emphasized the importance of protecting wildlife, whether or not people see a direct benefit.

“If you want to live in a world where the only species left are ones that have utility for us, you’re welcome to it, because I want no part of that,” Culver said.