United States Fish and Wildlife Service

"FWS" redirects here. For other uses, see FWS (disambiguation).

United States Fish and Wildlife Service

Seal of the US Fish and Wildlife Service
Flag of the US Fish and Wildlife Service
Agency overview
Preceding agency	Bureau of Fisheries
Jurisdiction	United States Federal Government
Headquarters	Bailey's Crossroads, Virginia, US 38.845663°N 77.120087°W / 38.845663; -77.120087
Employees	Approx. 8,000
Annual budget	$1.584 billion (FY2021)
Agency executives	Martha Williams (acting), Director Martha Williams, Principal Deputy Director
Website	www.fws.gov
Footnotes

Arctic Refuge Law Enforcement Officer Heather Bartlett stands alongside her Super Cub, 2009

The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS or FWS) is an agency of the United States Government within the United States Department of the Interior dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. The mission of the agency is "working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people."

Among the responsibilities of the USFWS are enforcing federal wildlife laws; protecting endangered species; managing migratory birds; restoring nationally significant fisheries; conserving and restoring wildlife habitat, such as wetlands; helping foreign governments in international conservation efforts; and distributing money to fish and wildlife agencies of U.S. states through the Wildlife Sport Fish and Restoration Program. The vast majority of fish and wildlife habitat is on state or private land not controlled by the United States Government. Therefore, the USFWS works closely with private groups such as Partners in Flight and the Sport Fishing and Boating Partnership Council to promote voluntary habitat conservation and restoration.

The Agency's directorship currently is vacant after Aurelia Skipwith, the agency's former director, left her post on January 19, 2021. President Joe Biden has appointed Martha Williams, former director of the Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks, to be the Principal Deputy Director, Fish and Wildlife Service.

The USFWS employs approximately 8,000 people and is organized into a central administrative office in Falls Church, Virginia, eight regional offices, and nearly 700 field offices distributed throughout the United States.

Sub-units

Sub-units of the USFWS include:

• National Wildlife Refuge System—560 National Wildlife Refuges and thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas covering over 150 million acres (607,000 km²)
• Division of Migratory Bird Management
• Federal Duck Stamp
• National Fish Hatchery System—70 National Fish Hatcheries and 65 Fish and Wildlife Conservation Offices
• Endangered Species program—86 Ecological Services Field Stations
  • Endangered Species Bulletin, a quarterly publication
• International Affairs Program
• National Conservation Training Center
• USFWS Office of Law Enforcement
• Clark R. Bavin National Fish and Wildlife Forensic Laboratory
• Landscape Conservation Cooperatives

National Monuments

The USFWS governs six National Monuments:

• The Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington state;
• The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument, a huge maritime area in the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands, managed jointly with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the State of Hawaii);
• The Aleutian Islands World War II National Monument in Alaska;
• The Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, the largest marine protected area in the world, managed in consultation with NOAA;
• The Rose Atoll Marine National Monument in American Samoa. [[managed jointly with NOAA and the Government of American Samoa; and
• The Marianas Trench Marine National Monument, which includes undersea mud volcanoes, vents, chemosynthetic organisms, and many of the deepest points on Earth, managed in coordination with NOAA and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.

Tribal relations

Pursuant to the eagle feather law, Title 50, Part 22 of the Code of Federal Regulations (50 CFR 22), and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act, the US Fish and Wildlife Service administers the National Eagle Repository and the permit system for Native American religious use of eagle feathers. These exceptions often only apply to Native Americans that are registered with the federal government and are enrolled with a federally recognized tribe.

In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the USFWS began to incorporate the research of tribal scientists into conservation decisions. This came on the heels of Native American traditional ecological knowledge (TEK) gaining acceptance in the scientific community as a reasonable and respectable way to gain knowledge of managing the natural world. Additionally, other natural resource agencies within the United States government, such as the United States Department of Agriculture, have taken steps to be more inclusive of tribes, native people, and tribal rights. This has marked a transition to a relationship of more co-operation rather than the tension between tribes and government agencies seen historically. Today, these agencies work closely with tribal governments to ensure the best conservation decisions are made and that tribes retain their sovereignty.

History

FWS patrol vehicles, Alaska 1950

FWS personnel in uniform

Ancestor organizations

Fish Commission and Bureau of Fisheries

The original ancestor of USFWS was the United States Commission on Fish and Fisheries, more commonly referred to as the United States Fish Commission, created in 1871 by the United States Congress with the purpose of studying and recommending solutions to a noted decline in the stocks of food fish. Spencer Fullerton Baird was appointed its first commissioner. In 1903, the Fish Commission was reorganized as the United States Bureau of Fisheries and made part of the United States Department of Commerce and Labor. When the Department of Commerce and Labor was split into the United States Department of Commerce and the United States Department of Labor in 1913, the Bureau of Fisheries was made part of the Department of Commerce. Originally focused on fisheries science and fish culture, the Bureau of Fisheries also assumed other duties after the U.S. Congress assigned it the responsibility for the enforcement of fishery and fur seal-hunting regulations in the Territory of Alaska in 1906 and for the management and harvest of northern fur seals, foxes, and other fur-bearing animals in the Pribilof Islands, as well as for the care, education, and welfare of the Aleut communities in the islands, in 1910. In 1939, the Bureau of Fisheries moved from the Department of Commerce to the Department of the Interior.

Bureau of Biological Survey

The other ancestor of the USFWS began as the Section of Economic Ornithology, which was established within the United States Department of Agriculture in 1885 and became the Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy in 1886. In 1896 it became the Division of Biological Survey. Its early work focused on the effect of birds in controlling agricultural pests and mapping the geographical distribution of plants and animals in the United States. Clinton Hart Merriam headed the Bureau for 25 years and became a national figure for improving the scientific understanding of birds and mammals in the United States. In 1934, the Division was reorganized as the Bureau of Biological Survey and Jay Norwood Darling was appointed its chief; the same year, Congress passed the Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act (FWCA), one of the oldest federal environmental review statutes. Under Darling's guidance, the Bureau began an ongoing legacy of protecting vital natural habitat throughout the United States. In 1939, the Bureau of Biological Survey moved from the Department of Agriculture to the Department of the Interior.

Fish and Wildlife Service

On June 30, 1940, the Bureau of Fisheries and the Bureau of Biological Survey were combined to form the Department of the Interior′s Fish and Wildlife Service. In 1956, the Fish and Wildlife Service was reorganized as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service — which remained part of the Department of the Interior — and divided its operations into two bureaus, the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife and the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries, with the latter inheriting the history and heritage of the old U.S. Fish Commission and U.S. Bureau of Fisheries.

Upon the formation of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) within the Department of Commerce on October 3, 1970, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries merged with the saltwater laboratories of the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife to form today's National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), an element of NOAA. The remainder of the USFWS remained in place as the foundation of the USFWS as it is known today.

Fleet

The Fish Commission operated a small fleet of research ships and fish-culture vessels, and the Bureau of Fisheries inherited these and greatly expanded its fleet of seagoing vessels, including both patrol vessels for fishery enforcement in the Territory of Alaska and a cargo liner — known as the "Pribilof tender" — to provide transportation for passengers and haul cargo to, from, and between the Pribilof Islands. Upon its creation in 1940, the FWS inherited the BOF’s fleet. In the 1956 reorganization that created the USFWS, the Bureau of Commercial Fisheries (BCF) assumed the responsibility within the USFWS for operation of the seagoing vessels of the fleet.

The USFWS continued fishery enforcement in Alaska until after Alaska became a state in January 1959, but by 1960 had turned over enforcement responsibilities and some of the associated vessels to the Government of Alaska as the latter assumed the responsibility for fishery enforcement in its waters. The USFWS continued to operate fisheries research ships and the Pribilof tender until the BCF’s seagoing fleet was transferred to the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), an element of NOAA, upon the creation of NOAA on October 3, 1970. Although the NMFS continued to operate the Pribilof tender until 1975, the rest of the ships were transferred from the NMFS to a unified NOAA fleet during 1972 and 1973. The modern NOAA fleet therefore traces its ancestry in part to the USFWS fleet operated by the BCF.

Both before and after the FWS became the USFWS in 1956, ships of its fleet used the prefix “US FWS” while in commission. A partial list of ships of the FWS and USFWS fleet:

• US FWS Albatross III (research vessel, 1948–1959)
• US FWS Albatross IV (research vessel, FWS 1963–1970, then NOAA1970–2008)
• US FWS Auklet (patrol vessel, BOF 1917–1940, then FWS 1940–1950)
• US FWS Blue Wing (patrol vessel, BOF 1924–1940, then FWS 1940–1950s)
• US FWS Brant (patrol vessel, BOF 1926–1940, then FWS 1940–1953)
• US FWS Crane (patrol vessel, BOF 1928–1940, then FWS 1940–1960)
• US FWS David Starr Jordan (research vessel, FWS 1966–1970, then NOAA 1970–2010)
• US FWS Delaware II (research vessel, FWS 1968-1970, then NOAA 1970–2012)
• US FWS Dennis Winn (Pribilof tender and cargo liner, 1948-1960)
• US FWS Eider (Pribilof tender and patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940, then FWS 1940–1942 and 1946–late 1940s)
• US FWS George B. Kelez (research vessel 1962–1970, then NOAA 1970–1980)
• US FWS Henry O'Malley (research vessel 1949–1951)
• US FWS Hugh M. Smith (research vessel 1949–1963)
• US FWS John N. Cobb (research vessel 1950–1970, then NOAA 1970–2008)
• US FWS John R. Manning (research vessel 1950–1969)
• US FWS Kittiwake (patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940, then FWS 1940–late 1940s)
• US FWS Merganser (patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940, then FWS 1940–ca. 1942–1943)
• US FWS Miller Freeman (research vessel 1967-1970, then NOAA 1975-2013)
• US FWS Murre (patrol vessel, BOF 1917–1940, then FWS 1940–1942)
• US FWS Murre II (research vessel 1949–1970, then NOAA 1970-1989)
• US FWS Oregon (research vessel 1956–1970, then NOAA 1970–1980)
• US FWS Pelican (research and patrol vessel, BOF 1930–1940, then FWS/USFWS 1940–1958, NMFS ca. 1970/1971 to 1972)
• US FWS Penguin (Pribilof tender, BOF 1930–1940, then FWS 1940–1950)
• US FWS Penguin II (Pribilof tender, 1950–1963)
• US FWS Pribilof (Pribilof tender 1963–1970,then NMFS 1970–1975)
• US FWS Scoter (patrol vessel, BOF 1922–1940, then FWS 1940–1949)
• US FWS Teal (patrol vessel, BOF 1928–1940, then FWS/USFWS 1940–1960)
• US FWS Townsend Cromwell (research vessel 1964–1975, then NOAA 1975–2002)
• US FWS Widgeon (patrol vessel, BOF 1919–1940, then FWS 1940–ca. 1944-1945)

In popular culture

In 1959, the methods used by USFWS's Animal Damage Control Program were featured in the Tom Lehrer song "Poisoning Pigeons in the Park".

See also

• Federal law enforcement in the United States

Related governmental agencies

• Atlantic Coastal Cooperative Statistics Program
• National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
• National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries Office of Law Enforcement
• National Marine Fisheries Service
• National Park Service
• Partners for Fish and Wildlife
• United States Coast Guard
• United States Geological Survey

Regulatory matters

• Coastal Barrier Resources Act
• Endangered Species Act
• Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
• Lacey Act
• Listing priority number
• Marine Mammal Protection Act
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act
• Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918
• National Wetlands Inventory
• National Wildlife Refuge System Administration Act of 1966
• Sikes Act
• Wild Bird Conservation Act of 1992
• Ramsar Wetlands Convention
• The Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Flora and Fauna (CITES)

Wildlife management

• International Migratory Bird Day
• Timeline of environmental events
• Tri-State Bird Rescue and Research
• Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora
• United States Fish and Wildlife Service list of endangered species
• Sierra Club v. Babbitt

Other related topics

• Arizona Game and Fish Department
• National Survey of Fishing, Hunting, and Wildlife-Associated Recreation
• National Wildlife Refuge Association
• North American Game Warden Museum

Notes

1. ^{^} USFWS headquarters has a Falls Church, Virginia, US mailing address.

Further reading

• US fishery agency Annual Reports 1871-1940 and 1947-1979
• Director of US Fish and Wildlife Service dies at Keystone
• DOI Secretary Ken Salazar's Statement on the Passing of Fish and Wildlife Service Director Sam Hamilton
• "Biological Survey, Bureau of" . Encyclopedia Americana. 1920.

External links

• Official website
• US Fish and Wildlife Service on Google Cultural Institute
• Fish and Wildlife Service in the Federal Register
• FWS Midwest Region
• FWS Southwest Region
• Lower Great Lakes Fishery Resources Office
• Technical Report Archive and Image Library (TRAIL) Historic technical reports from the Fish and Wildlife Service (and other Federal agencies)