The CNO External Affairs Office is making web-based news and information about Service resource programs and activities more accessible to non-English speaking residents in California and Nevada and the Klamath Basin.

As part of a long-term project to update and improve CNO's website ( www.fws.gov/cno )   External Affairs has added a new design template that includes software that translates web page content from English, to Spanish, Chinese or French. Visitors to the CNO website need only select the appopriate icons from flags in the upper right corner of the site to activate the translation. While other Service regions have incorporated translation software to their websites, the feature will truly benefit CNO's reach to audiences in the California, Nevada and the Klamath Basin, a region home to more than 39 million people. Significant segments of the region's population speak languages other than English at home: California, 39 percent, Nevada 23 percent. Roughly 25 percent of these households speak Spanish. Asian languages, including Chinese is spoken by 9 percent of households in California and 5 percent in Nevada.

Other upgrades to the site include a new banner, footer and improved navigation features that allow for users to go directly to field offices from the home page.  More improvements are planned during this on-going redesign project, which is being managed by External Affairs and contractor Aaron Roberson.

The CNO website redesign coincides with a Service-wide effort to establish a more uniform appearance (One Service look and feel) among its regional websites. New web standards have been published by the Service that mandate compliance with Service web policy, federal laws and regulations regarding operation of government websites.  CNO External Affairs also created a Web Management page on the Intranet to help keep CNO web managers and project leaders informed about Service Internet policies, intiatives and management responsibilities. The site is available to all CNO employees at: https://intranet.fws.gov/cno/ExternalAffairs-web.html .