April 17, 2006

Barb Perkins  303-236-4588                                       Laura Henze   703.358.2398

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Presents Fort Riley, Kansas, the Military Installation Conservation Partner Award 

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service named Fort Riley, Kansas as the 2005 recipient of its Military Installation Conservation Partner Award. The Service created this award to recognize installations that have made significant natural resource conservation achievements, while enhancing military training, through cooperative work with the Service and others. Such achievements may include conserving, protecting and restoring important habitat for migratory birds, endangered species, native fish and wildlife, and game species on and around military lands.   

In recognition of this achievement, H. Dale Hall, Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, presented an award to Fort Riley during the 71^st North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference in Columbus, Ohio, last month.  

“Fort Riley provides an outstanding example of the contributions to conservation that are made by military installations across the Nation,” said Service Director Hall. “The Service is especially proud of Fort Riley’s dedication to conserving valuable natural resources on military lands, and looks forward to many more years of such cooperative efforts.”   

Fort Riley partnered with the Service and The Nature Conservancy to establish the Fort Riley Prairie Partnership, an effort to lead activities to conserve the tall grass prairie ecosystem on Fort Riley and adjacent private lands. Fort Riley also provided important assistance to the Service in support of research and monitoring activities for listed and candidate species, both on and off Fort Riley.  In addition, Fort Riley developed and now manages several wetland restoration projects on the installation.    

For over 40 years, since the passing of the Sikes Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has worked in cooperation with the military to conserve fish and wildlife resources found on the 30 million acres of land owned and managed by the Department of Defense.  These lands are valuable to maintaining survival and diversity for many important species.   

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is the principal Federal agency responsible for conserving, protecting and enhancing fish, wildlife and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The Service manages the 95-million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System, which encompasses 545 national wildlife refuges, thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. It also operates 69 national fish hatcheries, 64 fishery resources offices and 81 ecological services field stations. The agency enforces federal wildlife laws, administers the Endangered Species Act, manages migratory bird populations, restores nationally significant fisheries, conserves and restores wildlife habitat such as wetlands, and helps foreign and Native American tribal governments with their conservation efforts. It also oversees the Federal Assistance program, which distributes hundreds of millions of dollars in excise taxes on fishing and hunting equipment to state fish and wildlife agencies.

 - FWS -                                                                           

For more information about the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, visit our home page at http://www.fws.gov