UMaine research cited in AP article on Canada lynx, snowshoe hare
University of Maine research was cited in an Associated Press article about wildlife officials and private landowners working to save the Canada lynx by providing patches of spruce and fir forests to attract more snowshoe hares on which lynx feed. An outbreak of spruce budworm threatened large areas of forest and prompted massive clear cutting in the 1970s and ’80s, according to the article. Spruce and fir that emerged from the clearings provided an ideal habitat for snowshoe hares, but those forests are now maturing and clear cutting has fallen off, which means trouble for lynx and its primary prey, the article states. If nothing is done, the state could lose up to 60 percent of the snowshoe hare habitat — and 60 percent of its lynx — within 14 years, according to an estimate by the University of Maine. ABC News, Yahoo News and the Portland Press Herald carried the AP report.