The Day the Biologists Came to Stay

By Dennis B. Fenn

On October 1, 1996, an event took place that ranks high on the list of memorable occurrences in the long history of the USGS. On that date, by the affirmative action of the Congressional appropriation process, the National Biological Service (NBS) was merged with the USGS to create a single DOI science agency. Almost 1,600 employees of the NBS that day became a part of the newly established Biological Resources Division (BRD) of the USGS, joining the venerable Geologic, Water, and Mapping Divisions of the then 117-year-old Interior science agency.

When the headquarters staff of the former NBS arrived for work at the John Wesley Powell Building in Reston, VA, the first day, they found USGS Director Gordie Eaton and other senior managers waiting in a gaily-decorated lobby to personally shake their hands and welcome them to their new home. When BRD employees got to their fourth floor offices, they found doughnuts, orange juice, and hot coffee waiting for them, courtesy of the Director. It was a gracious and thoughtful welcome that went a long way in assuring BRD employees that they would indeed be welcome in the USGS.

Eight years have now passed since that memorable day in 1996, and the biological research program is firmly entrenched in the "new USGS." The BRD brought an incredible wealth of biological expertise to an organization previously devoted primarily to the physical sciences. BRD also brought a strong legacy of providing relevant science in support of DOI land and resource management. The USGS is today the DOI science agency in reality. At the same time, the USGS has helped the BRD become more strategic and landscape focused in its work, as opposed to its former emphasis largely on smaller, site-specific needs. This broader focus for a more balanced share of BRD's programs will, over the long term, greatly assist DOI agencies with their big-picture needs, which can sometimes be pushed to the sidelines by smaller, more immediate problems.

Leadership for BRD over the past eight years has largely come from folks whose career roots go back to the National Park Service (NPS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and Bureau of Land Management (BLM). For example, Denny Fenn (NPS) and Sue Haseltine (FWS) have served as the Associate Director for Biology, while Larry Ludke (FWS), Suzette Kimball (NPS), and Anne Kinsinger (FWS) served as Center Directors and/or Regional Biologists. Of the 17 current science center directors in BRD, 9 come from FWS backgrounds and 3 from NPS backgrounds; the remaining 5 come from careers outside DOI. Mike Collopy, a former BLM scientist, served with distinction as a USGS center director for several years before returning to his academic roots in 2001. In addition, BRD folks have held USGS leadership positions outside of BRD--for example, Doug Buffington has served for several years now as Western Regional Director for the USGS. This ability to crossover disciplinary boundaries in providing leadership within the USGS has served to solidify the role of biology within the "new USGS" and assure a bright future for USGS science in support of DOI agencies.

Most people today agree that the merger of NBS and USGS into the "new USGS" has been a success. The USGS remains committed to serving the Interior bureaus as the departmental science agency. Relationships are strong between the BRD parent bureaus and the USGS. The future looks bright for DOI, and the USGS stands firmly committed to providing the good science needed to support DOI stewardship of our Nation's public lands.