The Department of Natural Resources proposed changes to the state’s list of protected species, requesting to remove 16 species and add eight.

According to a statement from the DNR, the bureau completed a review of Wisconsin’s rare species and is now requesting these changes be made to “Chapter NR 27,” the official name of the endangered species list.
The DNR proposed to add a total of eight species to the list, made up of birds, insects and aquatic life, according to the statement.

According to the DNR, there are 16 species it wants to remove from the list. These species include a variety of birds, plants and reptiles.

Erin Crain, chief of ecological inventory and monitoring in the DNR’s Bureau of Endangered Resources, said the state of Wisconsin looks at the list on a periodic basis to learn new trends, as required by state law. 

Crain said the protected species list is dynamic.

“The purpose of the protected species list is to change over time,” Crain said.

Crain said the department will look at the entire list and reassess the status of each species. She used cave bat species as an example of this.

“Four different species of cave bats were put on the protected list and then taken off due to the prevalence of white nose syndrome at one point,” Crain said.

Anna Pidgeon, an assistant professor of forest and wildlife ecology at the University of Wisconsin, said species are listed and delisted as endangered due to population levels.

Once the population number of an animal has increased enough that experts are no longer concerned, the species can be removed from the list, Pidgeon said.

“The reason that species are listed as endangered is because there is such a low amount of habitat available, and the habitats that do exist are declining really fast,” Pidgeon said. “Habitat loss is the most common reason for a species to be endangered.”

Pidgeon added when a population experiences habitat loss, it usually spurs an environmental group to petition to get this species on the endangered list.

According to Pidgeon, it is much more common for a species to get on the endangered list and then stay on versus being delisted.

“The problem is with habitat loss, which is not something that will just go away,” Pidgeon said.

The 16 species include the barn owl, Bewick’s wren, snowy egret,
greater redhorse, Blanding’s turtle, Butler’s gartersnake, pygmy
snaketail, American feverfew, bog bluegrass, Canada horse-balm,
drooping sedge, hemlock parsley, prairie Indian-plantain, snowy campion, yellow gentian and yellow giant hyssop.
The proposed additions to the list include Kirtland’s warbler, black tern, upland sandpiper, fawnsfoot, beach-dune
tiger beetle, ottoe skipper, issid planthopper and leafhopper.