Capitol Hill Restoration Society Offers Recommendations for District Wildlife Plan

An organization that restores historic buildings and natural habitats on Capitol Hill praised the District Department of Energy and Environment’s updated Wildlife Action Plan, but urged the agency to take a tougher stance on habitat conservation.

In July, the DOEE released an updated version of its 2005 Wildlife Action Plan, which the District is required to update every 10 years. The update sets goals for wildlife and habitat conservation in the District and will serve as guidelines for other D.C. agencies to follow in the next 10 years. The department is accepting public comments on the plan until Monday.

“The plan correctly identifies the important goal of expanding wildlife corridors,” Capitol Hill Restoration Society said yesterday in its public comments on the plan. “A corollary goal is to preserve existing wildlife corridors intact.”

The group called on the DOEE to focus more on wildlife corridors, or areas that connect habitats to each other allowing animal population to meet. The CHRS requested that the plan find a way to restrict development in wildlife corridors and asked that the department specifically request that no more roads be built through wildlife corridors.

The CHRS singled out the District Department of Transportation as a threat to wildlife corridors, saying that the department has repeatedly tried to build a road along the Anacostia River that would cut through an important wildlife habitat.

“We urge the DOEE to encourage all D.C. government agencies to work together with DOEE to further the goals of the” plan, the group said.

Photo via Anacostia Watershed Society