Narrator: Dave Harrelson, Ecological Services, Endangered Species Program
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the lead federal agency responsible for
managing the Nation’s fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing
benefit of the American people.
Several agencies in the federal government put our country’s conservation laws
into action, and the Service’s Ecological Services Program helps lead the way.
Conservation Planning Assistance Program Overview
In this short presentation we explore the role of the Conservation Planning
Assistance Program in conserving the “Nature of America”.
One of the Ecological Services Program’s priorities is to provide guidance and
expertise to protect wildlife from the impacts of large infrastructure development.
The Conservation Planning Assistance Program provides this guidance and expertise.
Many of these projects are critical to our Nation’s transition to new energy
sources and are key elements to the Nation’s response to climate change,
including renewable energy development, water management projects,
transportation, hydropower, pipelines and transmission lines.
Created on the heels of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the
Conservation Planning Assistance Program focused on integrating fish and
wildlife conservation with large-scale public works projects.
Our responsibilities have expanded as the public’s demands for conservation
have grown and environmental mandates have broadened.
Our staff have become experts in integrating and jointly addressing the
requirements of numerous conservation statutes, such as the
National Environmental Policy Act
Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act
Clean Water Act
Endangered Species Act
Migratory Bird Treaty Act and
Federal Power Act
With this broad mandate, the Conservation Planning Assistance Program has
become the Service’s unified voice for fish and wildlife in addressing the effects
of development.
Conservation Planning Assistance plays a vital role in conserving America’s
natural resources by engaging public and private partners in conservation
planning and delivery and in the review of major development proposals.
The Conservation Planning Assistance program works collaboratively with other
federal agencies, industries, stakeholders, as well as state and local
governments, on development projects that accommodate both our country’s
infrastructure needs, and preserve our Nation's biological, terrestrial and aquatic
natural resources.
Today, there are 250 dedicated biologists in nearly 100 field offices across the
country who work on the most pressing issues affecting our fish and wildlife.
Our biologists provide technical information, analyze fish and wildlife impacts,
serve as members of planning teams and recommend measures to benefit fish
and wildlife resources across the landscape.
We recommend early consultation by project proponents and agencies to identify
and recommend ways to avoid potential resource conflicts.
We also provide technical assistance on how to minimize unavoidable impacts to
wildlife and their habitats through appropriate project siting, design, construction
and operation.
Service biologists also provide information about species that may be affected by
proposed development, sensitive or rare habitat in the area and sampling and
monitoring protocols.
And if necessary, our biologists help develop compensatory mitigation plans and
strategies.
Our goal is to implement innovative solutions to meet development needs, while
maintaining ecosystem integrity and protecting fish and wildlife habitats.
For example, our Conservation Planning Assistance biologists are working with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to mitigate impacts and monitor fish and
wildlife as part of the Savannah Harbor Expansion Project along the coasts of
South Carolina and Georgia.
This large scale transportation project will allow bigger ships to access the Port
of Savannah, but the project could dramatically affect the wetlands and water
quality of the Savannah River and Savannah National Wildlife Refuge, threatening
the diversity of migratory birds and other wildlife that depend on this vital habitat.
Our biologists identified ways to reduce the loss of wetlands, opportunities to
restore tidal marshes, and recommended the most effective methods to mitigate
for the unavoidable loss of wetlands.
In this case, the loss of 223 acres of wetlands will be mitigated by the purchase of
2,245 acres of habitat adjoining the Savannah National Wildlife Refuge.
We also participated in the planning of the New Savannah Bluff Lock and
Dam Fishway.
This project will provide fish passage for endangered shortnose and Atlantic
sturgeon to the last suitable spawning habitat on the Savannah River.
Another example of the work we do is the successful mitigation of impacts associated with the
Rockies Express-East and the Enbridge Flanagan South pipeline projects. Rockies Express-East
is a huge project. This $5.6 billion pipeline stretches more than 1,600 miles from Colorado
to Ohio, representing the largest pipeline construction in the United States in 25 years.
Service biologists coordinated with Rockies Express, and other federal and state agencies
to survey the project area. We worked with Rockies Express to develop
measures that preserve and restore forest interior habitat important for scarlet tanagers
and other migratory birds.
More than $4 million dollars in mitigation
funds resulted from the Service's review of one 638-mile phase of this project that stretches
from Missouri to Ohio. These funds are being used to preserve and/or restore additional
forest habitat where it was lost in Illinois, Indiana, Missouri and Ohio.
The Enbridge oil pipeline stretches approximately 593 miles through portions of Illinois, Missouri,
Kansas and Oklahoma. Modeling of potential impacts to listed species and migratory bird
habitat resulted in compensatory mitigation of more than $22 million dollars.
This is the kind of successful conservation that can be achieved when Service biologists
collaborate with industry and other partners to protect wildlife and their habitats.
With a history of crafting solutions to complex conservation problems, the Conservation Planning
Assistance Program has become an integral component of our Ecological Services network
of field offices addressing some of today’s biggest conservation challenges.
For the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service this is Dave Harrelson. Thanks for watching.