Cape Elizabeth going down the rabbit hole?

There’s one rule about catching rabbits – you don’t talk about catching rabbits.

On Monday, Cape Elizabeth Town Manager Michael McGovern, citing the state’s reluctance to release information, played mum about the status of ongoing efforts to corral New England cottontail rabbits at Fort Williams Park, which became a necessity after the endangered species was found at the park.

“I don’t usually like to be evasive,” said McGovern, “but they specifically asked that we not release any information on the catch program.”

McGovern has verified that he has a May 10 meeting with the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (IF&W), which is working to remove the rabbits, but has refused to say what issues will be on the table.

One sticking point in negotiations is an IF&W demand that the town set aside eight acres of habitat for every acre of land disturbed in the park. The plan is for the rabbits to be moved and bred in captivity. Their progeny would then be brought back to land set aside in Cape Elizabeth. The town is now trying to identify where that land might be, and how much land is needed.

At a recent meeting of the Fort Williams Advisory Commission, Chairman Bill Nickerson said about 50,000 square feet of land was cleared, although IF&W “claims it was 2.5 acres.” That would equate to a demand of 20 acres.

“We are still working with the town,” said Judy Camuso, a regional biologist with the IF&W. “We need to come up with a management plan. Our goal is to make sure we don’t have any net loss of habitat. Otherwise they are going to have no way to grow their population.”

Camuso said the silence surrounding the search for the rabbits is meant to protect the animals, which have been reduced to a population of around 300 individuals.

“As with many endangered species, there’s a black market for them,” she said. “I don’t want to tell people too much about how we are moving the rabbits, or when, or that sort of thing, until we are done.”

The need to catch the rabbits arose last fall, when volunteer members of a committee created to build an arboretum at the park cleared an area of invasive pants – bittersweet and Japanese knotweed – that were necessary as cover for the New England cottontail, which has been on Maine's list of threatened and endangered species since 2007. 

Once the progeny of the rabbits are returned, said Maureen O’Meara, the town planner, one possible rabbit homeland is the 71-acre Winnick Woods, which already has a management plan that includes setting aside 15 acres for New England cottontails. 

“That 15 acres is immediately adjacent to 10 acres that is owned by the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service,” O’Meara said. “Those two acres together become a meaningful amount of land that can support the cottontail in a reasonable habitat.”

Whether or not Winnick Wood will be volunteered is unknown. Another area, known as Gull Crest, also has been mentioned as a possible habitat. Wherever the rabbits land, there will be restrictions on public use of the land, McGovern has said.  There also could be ongoing costs to local taxpayers, as maintenance of the required undergrowth is not what a naturally maturing forest does of its own volition.

Camuso has acknowledged that local taxpayers may play on ongoing role, beyond the $4,800 already committed.

“Cape Elizabeth should consider themselves privileged to be stewards of such a rare animal,” she said.

And how is that stewardship going so far? 

“They have caught one bunny so far,” said a volunteer on a town committee, late last week, “but it got away.”