The tax filing season has opened and Wisconsin residents can again help the state's rare wildlife and plants by taking a few seconds to on their Wisconsin income tax form.
Donors' gifts to the Endangered Resources Fund are doubled by the state and go directly to conserve rare species and State Natural Areas.
The DNR's Natural Heritage Conservation Program Director Drew Feldkirchner thanked people who donated in the past and he says the voluntary contributions have made a difference...
"Over the years, hundreds of different projects on many different species. Rare animals and plants. Right now we're celebrating the comeback of the eagles. We've been monitoring eagle populations for decades watch them grow and succeed their populations. But we have hundreds of other species that need our help...."
He says they're helping support research to restore bat populations, conserving rare animals like wood turtles, whooping cranes and plants. He says they help train volunteers across the state to help preserve endangered and threatened species.
He says the donation is easy to do...
"You can write on your Wisconsin state tax form, there's a place where you can donate to the Endangered Resources Fund. Years ago, folks may remember there was a loon there. The loon isn't there anymore but there still is the Endangered Resources Fund line...."
In Wisconsin, more than 400 wildlife species and 300 plant species are endangered, threatened or declining. Feldkirchner says one million species could go extinct in coming decades according to a U.N. report, if action is not taken to reduce factors leading to their decline: habitat loss or degradation, the direct killing of species, climate change, pollution, and invasion by non-native plants, animals and pathogens.
