Speech: Steven Williams Remarks for The Wildlife Society 10th Annual Conference Burlington, VT

Sept. 7, 2003

Thank you for the invitation to address this great organization.

As a personal member of The Wildlife Society since 1979, it is humbling to stand before a gathering of professionals who represent such tremendous experience and expertise.

Thank you for this opportunity.

It is good to see old friends and acquaintances in the audience, but it is also heartening to see new and young faces; men and women; and people of different ethnic and cultural backgrounds.

We all know the importance of biological diversity, but we also have a growing appreciation of the value of diversity within our professional ranks.

I want to thank The Wildlife Society for its leadership in that essential cause, and especially for recognizing the accomplishment of one of the Fish and Wildlife Service’s employees later this morning – Dr. Mamie Parker.

I want to speak today about my view of the North American model of wildlife conservation – in which wildlife is treated as a public resource – and about the role that science will play in this model.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service carries out this model in four major ways:

• providing equitable opportunities for the American public to understand and enjoy wildlife – including hunting and fishing;

• managing land in a manner that conveys what Aldo Leopold called a land ethic;

• working in partnership with others – including other Federal agencies, states, tribes and private landowners.
Increasingly, our work involves other nations as we strive to conserve endangered and threatened species and to manage migrating birds and other animals that don’t pay heed to international borders;

• and – perhaps most importantly – ensuring that the foundation of our wildlife management is science.

One hundred years ago – less than a month after launching the National Wildlife Refuge System by creating the nation’s first refuge at Pelican Island – Teddy Roosevelt had some pretty straightforward insights on the value of making wildlife accessible to all.

He hitched a ride on a cross-country train and began an eight-week trip through the West.

During his trek through Yosemite, Roosevelt wrote that those who appreciate the majesty and beauty of the great outdoors should join forces with those who wish to conserve our nation’s material resources.

The result, he predicted, would be to “keep our forests and our game-beasts, game- birds and game-fish ... from wanton destruction.”

Then he said this about equitable opportunities for hunting and wildlife enjoyment:

“Above all, we should recognize that the effort toward this end is essentially a democratic movement” that would make the outdoors accessible “for rich and poor alike.”

As a result of Roosevelt’s vision, we are now blessed with an abundance of public lands and the opportunity they represent.

Arguably, no greater security for the public trust in wildlife has been achieved in the history of conservation.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is responsible for a large piece of our public lands legacy – the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System.

And with refuges about an hour’s drive from most cities, the Refuge System is doing its part in providing outdoor opportunities like birdwatching, education, wildlife observation, and nature photography.

More than half of our 540 national wildlife refuges also offer opportunities for hunting and fishing. And where it is possible, the Service will continue to expand these opportunities.

Hunters and anglers have been the backbone of wildlife conservation from the beginning.

Their chosen recreation will continue to instill the lasting respect for nature upon which wildlife conservation was founded. Their support is increasingly vital to the future.

And as we think of the future, and building the next generation of wildlife conservationists, the Service and the National Wildlife Refuge System will play an increasingly important role.

Aldo Leopold taught us that land is a community of life and that love and respect for the land is an extension of ethics.
As we conduct our land management for the next 100 years, we will seek to reflect Leopold’s land ethic in our stewardship.

As we build our public use programs, we will seek to instill that ethic in others. I know we will work with The Wildlife Society, and with many of you, as we move in that direction in the future.

Speaking of working together, partnership is another hallmark of the American model of wildlife conservation that is a particular passion of mine. Promoting partnerships is a personal priority, because I believe that they have been and continue to be the cornerstone of fish and wildlife conservation in America.

Examples of partnerships abound, but one that I admire is the Partners in Flight program.

PIF was founded on the premise that public and private organizations in North and South America must work more closely to conserve neotropical migrants, land birds and other bird species in this hemisphere. Thanks to Partners in Flight, managers of National Wildlife Refuges, and those who direct National Forests and State Wildlife Management Areas now have an greater understanding of their role in neotropical migratory bird management.

We are poised at a moment in history when there is a growing convergence of opportunity, understanding and capability. Working together, as a society of professionals, we can accomplish much.

But we must build stronger support within the American public, and that is why we must pay special attention to strengthening the scientific foundations for wildlife management.

In fact, from day one as Director, I have emphasized the paramount importance of scientific excellence.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has a proud tradition of scientific excellence, and my highest priority as Director is to build on that tradition.

As modern wildlife management professionals, we are constantly wrestling with conflicting interests.

These conflicts often center on endangered or threatened species, or on the need for controversial lethal management actions when dealing with over-abundant or invasive species.
The key challenge in each case is to be able to understand, apply and explain why science drives our wildlife management decisions, and why these decisions will help manage wildlife as a public resource. Our credibility as professionals, and as professional organizations, derives from this commitment to science.

Just last month, the Service issued a Federal migratory bird permit allowing the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to reduce its population of feral mute swans by 525 birds.

Using the best scientific data and protocols, our environmental assessment made the case that lethal take of adult birds has been shown to be the only effective method for reducing populations of long-lived mute swans.

In November 2000, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service made a difficult and controversial decision in conjunction with the National Marine Fisheries Service, declaring Atlantic salmon endangered in eight Maine rivers. Integral to that action was the scientific determination that Maine's salmon are genetically distinct from other Atlantic salmon.

Scientific support from the U.S. Geological Survey was instrumental in this effort. Documents and correspondence supporting the decision-making process were organized meticulously. And that’s a good thing, because the legal gauntlet was quickly thrown down.

A month after the listing, a lawsuit was filed challenging the validity of the policy on distinct population segments.
The plaintiffs also convinced Congress to direct the National Research Council to review the genetic status of Atlantic Salmon in Maine.

The council issued an interim report in January 2002 backing the Services’ decision. Then, in May 2003, a district judge rejected the legal challenge.

In terms of its scientific and legal complexity, the Atlantic salmon issue is typical of what the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service faces every day. The Atlantic salmon case is a good example of why the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service must do everything it can to maintain its tradition of scientific excellence.

The ever-escalating complexity of natural resource conservation demands scientific information that is rigorous, timely and relevant. With that in mind, I have launched a Science Excellence Initiative, headed up by Dan Ashe, Science Adviser to the Office of the Director.

This initiative will involve many components, several of which I will outline today. And it will unfold over several years. But every step we take will be grounded in the common belief that we must recommit ourselves to a vision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a scientific organization.

A top priority is to strengthen our relationship with organizations that conduct scientific research, particularly the U.S. Geological Survey, but also other Federal agencies, state agencies, and universities. To this end, I have begun meeting regularly with USGS Director Chip Groat.

Chip and I have issued a joint memorandum to our combined executive leadership, calling for a renewed spirit and process of cooperation between the two bureaus. We are asking our leaders to set a new and constructive direction.

In October, Director Groat and I will co-host a “Science Summit” between the combined executive leadership of our two bureaus. At that meeting, we will explore recent successes and new ways to work together to improve scientific support for natural resource management. We will identify specific steps to take in furthering cooperation between the two bureaus.

I expect that this strengthened USGS partnership will be the first of many between the Service and members of the scientific community.

It is a source of great personal pride to see Service employees like Susan Talbott – our Northeast Assistant Regional Refuge Biologist – presenting papers at this conference. I want to see more of that in the future, and I intend to encourage and facilitate professional society membership, certification, publication in society journals, and participation and leadership among our employees.

I want to see the professional societies become more involved in our agency training programs.

To that end, I am asking our National Conservation Training Center to begin a dialogue with the leaders of these societies on exploring new opportunities to cooperatively enhance fish and wildlife professionalism.

We will be launching an effort to assess our “scientific capacity” within the Service:

· We will identify the people and the facilities that constitute our current ability to access, understand, apply and communicate scientific information.

· We will ensure that our people are equipped, trained and supported to use science in managing fish and wildlife.

· We are building a research database that will prioritize and track our needs for scientific information.

· We will be designing more opportunities for shared training between our employees and employees of other scientific organizations, like the USGS.

· We will also acknowledge scientific excellence among our employees.

As part of the Science Excellence Initiative, I am asking Service Directorate members to lead a team to design a Rachel Carson Award for Scientific Excellence. This award will be the highest honor that a Service scientist can achieve, and it will help build a renewed awareness of the value of science and scientific accomplishment within the agency.

We will be taking steps to build “Communities of Practice” within the ranks of our scientific professionals. This effort will strengthen working relationships among scientific communities within the Service, like refuge biologists, contaminant biologists, listing biologists, and fisheries biologists. By encouraging formation of Communities of Practice, the Service will be investing in its most precious scientific resource – its people.

I would like to see the Service play a larger role in supporting undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate education.

I would like to see the Service more engaged in building the conservation curriculum of the future, so that our students are better prepared to enter tomorrow’s conservation workplace.

This curriculum would recognize the real-world problems that fish and wildlife managers face every day. It would be developed by asking future employers of fish and wildlife students what knowledge and skills are needed from the perspective of the employer.

It would emphasize practical management techniques, exposure to rural lifestyles and economies, writing skills, conflict resolution, the history of wildlife management and the role that hunters and anglers have and continue to play in wildlife conservation.

I believe that this approach – one that balances the highly specialized, technical, and theoretical knowledge set with a practical, common sense, and real-world knowledge set – is absolutely essential to maintain the progress we have made with the North American model of wildlife management.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be taking many other steps, big and little, to advance the Science Excellence Initiative. All are intended to take us in the same direction.

Today, as we grapple with increasingly complex issues, and intense public and legal scrutiny, we must rededicate ourselves to Scientific Excellence. There is no higher or more important objective.

Therefore, I intend to have a Service employee work with The Wildlife Society to help achieve the Science Excellence Initiative. This person will serve as a liaison between the Service and The Wildlife Society, focusing on actions to enhance science and professionalism.

I am proud to have been able to spend this time with you today, and I look forward to working alongside you in the days, months and years ahead.

Thank you.