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Patuxent Biological Survey Program History

1885.--Economic Ornithology (Branch in the Division of Entomology, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

1886.--Division of Economic Ornithology and Mammalogy (U.S. Department of Agriculture)

1889.--Relationship established between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. National Museum concerning the care and management of specimens resulting from biological investigation by the Biological Survey.

1896.--Division of Biological Survey

1905.--Bureau of Biological Survey

1910.--Biological Survey collections transferred from original U.S. National Museum building (now Arts and Industries Building) to present National Museum of Natural History building at 10^th and Constitution Avenue, Washington, D.C.; research and collections management staff stationed with the collections for the first time.

1929.--Division of Biological Investigations (Bureau of Biological Survey)

1934.--Section of Mammalogy (Division of Wildlife Research, Bureau of Biological Survey)

1936.--Section of Wildlife Surveys (Division of Wildlife Research, Bureau of Biological Survey)

1939.--Bureau of Biological Survey transferred from U.S. Department of Agriculture to the U.S. Department of the Interior (along with the Bureau of Fisheries from the U.S. Department of Commerce) on July 1, 1939

1940.--Wildlife Division of the National Park Service transferred to the Biological Survey (January 1, 1940)

1941.--Bureau of Biological Survey and Bureau of Fisheries combined on June 30, 1940, to create the Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Department of the Interior

1941.--Section of Wildlife Surveys renamed Section of Biological Surveys (Division of Wildlife Research, Fish and Wildlife Service)

1947.--Bird systematics and curation transferred from Section of Biological Surveys to Section of Distribution and Migrations of Birds (Division of Wildlife Research)

1951.--Section of Distribution of Birds and Mammals (Division of Wildlife Research, Fish and Wildlife Service)

1956.--Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (signed August 8) creates the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service with two bureaus: Bureau of Commercial Fisheries; Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife

1958.--Bird and Mammal Laboratories [Section of Birds recombined with Section of Mammals] (Branch of Wildlife Research, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

1972.--Section of Herpetology added to Bird and Mammal Laboratories

1973.--Bird and Mammal Laboratories renamed National Fish and Wildlife Laboratory (NFWL; Division of Wildlife Research)

1981.--Museum Section (NFWL transferred to Denver Wildlife Research Center, Division of Wildlife Research)

1985.--Biological Survey Section (Denver Wildlife Research Center, Division of Wildlife Research)

1987.---Biological Survey Section (National Ecology Research Center, Region 8, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service)

1993.--Biological Survey Program (Patuxent Environmental Science Center, National Biological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior)

1994.--Biological Survey Program (Patuxent Environmental Science Center, National Biological Service, U.S. Department of the Interior)

1996.--Biological Survey Project (Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, Biological Resources Division, U.S. Geological Survey, U.S. Department of the Interior)