Kirtland's Warbler Flies Off Federal Endangered Species List

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (USFWS) recently announced that Kirtland's Warblers no longer warrant protection under the Federal Endangered Species Act. The songbird met recovery goals after years of intensive habitat management, mostly in lower Michigan, where the core population lives. Numbers in Wisconsin do not yet meet the criteria for removal from the State of Wisconsin's endangered and threatened species list. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation (NHC) and partners continue conservation work to increase Wisconsin's small but growing population. 

On Wednesday, February 17, at 7 pm, Davin Lopez of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and the state lead for the Kirtland’s warbler conservation project, will present an online program on the status of this bird in Wisconsin and the ways Wisconsin is seeking to protect and enhance its presence in the state. Davin will discuss the highly specialized nesting requirements and other challenges to maintaining a healthy population of these warblers. Much effort in this area involves working with public and private forestry groups to manage timber plantations in ways that are favorable to the species, particularly in Adams and Marinette Counties. The DNR, USFWS, and their partners will continue to work on bolstering Wisconsin’s population of this iconic bird and the habitat on which it relies.

Davin Lopez has been with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) since 2005. In 2011, he joined the WDNR’s Bureau of Natural Heritage Conservation (formerly Endangered Resources) where he serves as the state Whooping Crane reintroduction coordinator and state lead for the Kirtland’s Warbler conservation project. Previously he was the statewide coordinator of the WDNR’s Chronic Wasting Disease program. He has previously worked at Colorado State University as a malaria research lab technician and as a zookeeper at the Denver and Pueblo Zoos. Davin was born and raised in Denver, Colorado, earned bachelor’s degrees in biology and anthropology from New Mexico State University, and a master’s degree in population ecology from the University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh.