SCIENCE

Strategic Habitat Conservation

Landscape Conservation Cooperatives

FWS Climate Strategy

Science Excellence

Excellence in science and its application to natural resource decision-making is the hallmark of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The Service makes decisions based on the best available information, applies scientific rigor to evaluate the outcomes of actions, and uses these evaluations to inform future decisions.

The Service is consistently working to strengthen the agency’s tradition of scientific excellence in the conservation of fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitat. This includes:
This includes:

• Expanding our capacities to acquire, apply, and communicate scientific information;
• Promoting active involvement of the Service and our employees in the larger scientific community;
• Encouraging strengthened partnerships between the Service and other scientific organizations; and
• Growing the next generation of Service scientists.

Supporting Scientific Excellence

Strategic Habitat Conservation plays a key role in supporting and strengthening our agency's tradition of scientific excellence in the conservation of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitat.

Key efforts include:

• Science Integrity -- Ensuring science excellence through practices and standards such as the FWS Science Committee, Information Quality Act, peer review, and FWS scientific publications such as the Journal of Fish and Wildlife Management and North American Fauna.
• The FWS Climate Change Strategy -- establishes a basic framework within which the agency will work as part of the larger conservation community to help ensure the sustainability of fish, wildlife, plants and habitats in the face of accelerating climate change.
• Landscape Conservation Cooperatives -- a network of partnerships working to develop a shared understanding of landscape change to inform and facilitate collaborative action for resource conservation and adaptation.
• Strategic Habitat Conservation -- Our agency’s approach for applying the best science to the conservation challenges of the 21st Century and making informed conservation decisions together with our partners.

Additional Resources:

Building Capacity for Strategic Conservation through Training