WFW - Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air & Rare Plants

Welcome - Our Mission

Welcome to the Forest Service - Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air & Rare Plants program web site. We cover a wide variety of topics and we are located across the nation. Our staff provides support and coordination to the public and the agency regions, forests and districts. This web site will give you a taste of our diversity and was designed for our various customers. We laid things out by topic with multiple paths to each topic.

Role of the Watershed, Fish, Wildlife, Air, Rare Plants, Soil & Threatened, Endangered & Sensitive Species Programs in Ecosystem Management

The first action item from the Wildlife, Fish, and Rare Plant Accountability Task Force calls upon the Chief to articulate the Agency's expectation of the role wildlife, fish, rare plants, and threatened, endangered, sensitive species programs will play in implementation of ecosystem management.

Simply stated, that role is to share leadership with other programs when meeting our land and service ethics, and carrying out our mission to be conservation leaders for the next century. Specifically, he expects positive, recognizable, well-integrated programs that:

Protect ecosystems by ensuring that proposed management activities promote conservation of biological diversity.

Restore deteriorated ecosystems by ensuring their biological health, diversity, and productivity.

Provide multiple benefits to people within the capabilities of ecosystems by enhancing ecosystem productivity, managing public access, and increasing environmental education.

Improve organizational effectiveness by ensuring that: appropriate skills are acquired and maintained; our customers'/owners' needs and desires are understood and used in decisionmaking through collaboration; the best science-based information is available; emphasis is placed on monitoring and evaluation; and findings are applied to improve the effectiveness of our actions.

The Chief expects line officers to develop wildlife and fish programs within the context of ecosystem management to a level of excellence that clearly demonstrates conservation leadership. He expects wildlife and fisheries biologists, ecologists, and botanists to bring their special technical expertise to promote the sustainability of ecosystems. And he expects all to work closely with our customers and partners in accomplishing our objectives. The health, diversity, and productivity of National Forest System wildlife, fish, and plant communities -- and opportunities for their use and enjoyment -- will be the measures of our success.