Partnerships

The Wildlife Program addresses national wildlife concerns by maintaining partnerships with State, Tribal, and municipal governments concerning local wildlife research issues.

USGS Biology programs represent the research arm of the DOI agencies managing the nation's natural resources. To meet the science needs of those who make natural resource management decisions, programs closely cooperate and develop new forms of partnerships with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the National Park Service, and other agencies.

• Science Support Partnership (SSP) Program - USGS Biology programs, including Wildlife program, conduct research on issues, identified by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) as the critical science information required to effectively manage our nations resources. The Wildlife Program is responsible for coordinating and tracking overall program activities on behalf of USGS. For more information on SSP, please visit pages of this site devoted to the partnership program at http://biology.usgs.gov/ssp/
• Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) represents the fish and wildlife professionals in the 56 states and territories, and the federal agencies of the United States, but also many provinces of Canada and Mexico. Its core functions are inter-agency coordination, legal services, international affairs, conservation and management programs, and legislation. http://www.fishwildlife.org

The Wildlife program provides research supporting the following nation-wide bird conservation initiatives:

• The US Shorebird Conservation Plan http://www.fws.gov/shorebirdplan/ - a national initiative, coordinated by the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), pooling resources and expertise from state and federal agencies and non-governmental organizations from across the country to develop a conservation strategy for migratory shorebirds and the habitats upon which they depend.
  
  
• Waterbird Conservation for the Americas http://www.waterbirdconservation.org - partnership linking the work of individuals and institutions having interest and responsibility for conservation of waterbirds and their habitats in the Americas.
  
  
• Partners in Flight
  http://www.partnerinflight.org - networked resources about North and South American landbirds and other bird species requiring terrestrial habitat.
  
  
• NBII Bird Conservation Node
  http://birdcon.nbii.gov provides electronic access to bird population and habitat data, maintained by federal, state, and local government agencies, non-governmental and private sector organizations.
  
  
• North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) http://www.nabci-us.org - a forum of government agencies, private organizations, and bird initiatives helping partners across the continent meet their common bird conservation objectives.

USGS Biology Resources Discipline collaborates with other government agencies, environmental groups, private industry, academic and research institutions, as well as interested individuals from Mexico, Canada, and the United States in the framework of the North American Pollinator Protection Campaign (NAPPC) to protect pollinating species in North America. Visit the NAPPC Web site to learn more about this collaborative initiative http://www.nappc.org

• Declining Amphibian Population Task Force (DAPTF) established by the Species Survival Commission (SSC) of the World Conservation Union (IUCN) and located at the Open University in the UK (NOTE:
  The DAPTF merged into the new IUCN/SSC Amphibian Specialist Group (ASG) in June, 2006. For further information please visit www.amphibians.org)
• Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation http://www.parcplace.org
• http://www.fws.gov/contaminants/Issues/Amphibians.cfm
  Amphibian Declines and Deformities on the lands of national wildlife refugees are surveyed by US Fish and Wildlife Service with the purpose of researching the cause/causes and enabling land managers to address associated problems.

Many partnerships between USGS, the host universities, State natural resource agencies, the Wildlife Management Institute, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are maintained by means of Cooperative Research Units Program ( http://www.coopunits.org/). The Cooperative Research Units (or Coops) are located at land grant universities in most states. For more information please visit the program site at http://www.coopunits.org/.