The Reno Fish and Wildlife Office works with our partners to protect and conserve endangered fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats in Nevada's Great Basin, the Eastern Sierra, and the Tahoe Basin for the continuing benefit of the American people.

About Us

Our office

We work with partners including federal, state, private landowners, tribes and non-governmental organizations to implement conservation actions and promote healthy habitat to support and recover at-risk species and species listed under the Endangered Species Act.

Across our office area, our work with private landowners helps conserve or recover listed species, and other wildlife species, through habitat restoration projects and technical and financial assistance on private land.

What We Do

The Reno Fish and Wildlife Officeis responsible for supporting the recovery of 25 endangered and threatened species found in northern Nevada, near Lake Tahoe and in the Eastern Sierra Nevada. Our goal is to help federally threatened and endangered plants and wildlife recover to healthy population levels and to prevent new species from needing the protections of the the Endangered Species Act through proactive conservation. Working with our partners, we focus much of our work in  sagebrush sagebrush
The western United States’ sagebrush country encompasses over 175 million acres of public and private lands. The sagebrush landscape provides many benefits to our rural economies and communities, and it serves as crucial habitat for a diversity of wildlife, including the iconic greater sage-grouse and over 350 other species.

Learn more about sagebrush
country including Nevada's precious  riparian riparian
Definition of riparian habitat or riparian areas.

Learn more about riparian
and spring systems, where the majority of sensitive wildlife and plant species are found. 

For a deeper dive into the Reno office's work and accomplishments, check out our 2022 Year in Review.

Our Organization

A large bird with brown feathers, white head, and yellow beak flies against a pale blue sky
The Migratory Bird Program works with partners to protect, restore and conserve bird populations and their habitats for the benefit of future generations by: ensuring long-term ecological sustainability of all migratory bird populations, increasing socioeconomic benefits derived from birds,...
A rocky shoreline of a river. The water is calm. Mist and green branches line the river.
The Ecological Services Program works to restore and protect healthy populations of fish, wildlife, and plants and the environments upon which they depend. Using the best available science, we work with federal, state, Tribal, local, and non-profit stakeholders, as well as private land owners, to...

Our Species

The Reno Fish and Wildlife Office works toward the recovery and conservation of more than 20 federally protected species in northern Nevada and the Eastern Sierra. Through our partnerships with Tribes, federal and state agencies, and NGOs we enact conservation efforts and gather important information about each of these species to best inform management actions.

Our office takes the lead on these efforts within the Service for the following species:

A small, orange butterfly landed on yellow flowers.

The Carson wandering skipper is a small tawny orange butterfly found in grassland habitats on alkaline substrates in Washoe County, Nevada and Lassen County, California. Much like monarch butterfly caterpillars rely on milkweed, Carson wandering skipper caterpillars feed on salt grass. The...

FWS Focus
An underwater photo of an olive-colored Clover Valley speckled dace.

Clover Valley speckled dace is a small freshwater fish found in cold rivers and springs, and thermal springs. It is currently found in only three springs and outflows in the Clover Valley in Elko County, Nevada. Little is known about the species before European settlement of the area. Clover...

FWS Focus
A small spotted brown and black toad on dry grass.

The Dixie Valley toad is the smallest toad within the A. boreas species complex. This specie's dorsum has a broken cream stripe and irregularly distributed rust-colored tubercles with black margins. Its dorsal ground color contains hues of olive with small irregular black specks. The face is...

FWS Focus

Desert dace is a small olive green and silver fish and is found in several thermal springs and outflows in Soldier Meadows in Humboldt County, Nevada. It has the highest temperature tolerance of any minnow in western North America and can live in waters as warm as 104 degrees Fahrenheit. Listed...

FWS Focus
A close-up photo of a small purple/pink flower

Fish Slough milkvetch is a perennial member of the pea family, and found only in a 6-mile stretch of salt flats near Fish Slough, a desert wetland in Inyo and Mono counties, near Bishop, California. Fish slough milk vetch has been listed as threatened since 1998. It requires alkaline and...

FWS Focus

Independence Valley Speckled dace is a small subspecies measuring approximately 40 millimeters [1.6 inches] or less in total length. This subspecies can be distinguished from the Lahontan speckled dace by their less developed lateral line system on both the body and the head. They are further...

FWS Focus
An underwater photo of a school of Owens pupfish.

Owens pupfish is a small, deep-bodied, laterally compressed fish with a total length that rarely exceeds 6 cm (2.5 in). Females are dusky, olive-green in color, with several dark vertical bars aligned in a row along the sides. Males are bright blue, particularly during the spring and summer...

FWS Focus

Owens Tui Chub is dusky-olive above and has blue and gold sides, a gold-colored head, and olive-brown to reddish brown fins. Individuals range from 15 mm (0.6 in) to 180 mm (7 in) in length. It is distinguished from other tui chubs by the presence of lateral radii on the scales with a rounded or...

FWS Focus
A small fish in hand with rose coloring on it's side along with dark blue spots

The Paiute cutthroat trout is a distinctive member of the cutthroat trout complex, distinguishable from other cutthroat trouts by body coloration and the absence, or near absence, of body spots. Snyder (1933, 1934) described these fish as a new species, (Salmo seleniris), based on: 1) absence of...

FWS Focus

Railroad Valley springfish is one of five subspecies of White River springfish. The body is two-thirds as wide as deep and the head is relatively large. The dorsum is yellow to olive to gray with a dark stripe extending along the surface from snout to tail and the ventral half is silver. They...

FWS Focus
Four Sierra Nevada big horn sheep are photographed crossing a snowy mountain slope.

The Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep is similar in appearance to other desert associated bighorn sheep. The species' coat shows a great deal of color variation, ranging from almost white to fairly dark brown. The belly, rump patch, back of legs, muzzle, and eye patch are all white. Males and females...

FWS Focus
steamboat buckwheat flowers look like light pink pompoms on leafless stems

Eriogonum ovalifolium var. williamsiae (steamboat buckwheat) is a low, densely matted, compact perennial herb 2-18 inches (in; 5-46 centimeters (cm)) across. The above-ground portions of the plant arise from a shallow but stout, woody, reddish-brown taproot (usually in older plants) or a shallow...

FWS Focus
A low growing plant with yellow flowers on a hillside covered in greyish-white rock,

Eriogonum tiehmii is a member of the Polygonaceae (buckwheat family). It is a low growing perennial herb forming a dense compact mat up to 10.8 inches (in; 30 centimeters (cm)) across and 6 in (16 cm) high. Leaves are only at the base of the plant, blueish gray in color, elliptic, and gray...

FWS Focus
A close up of a cluster of small, five petal leaf , flowers.

Ivesia webberi is a member of the Rosaceae (rose family). It is a low, spreading, perennial forb up to 9.8 inches (in) (25 centimeters (cm)) across with greenish-gray foliage and dark red, wiry stems (Figure 1). The 2.8 inch long leaves are mostly clustered around the base of the stems, with 8...

FWS Focus

Our Library

A small spotted brown and black toad in someone's hand.
A collection of files related to Dixie Valley toad.
A low growing plant with yellow flowers on a hillside covered in greyish-white rock,
A collection of documents related to Tiehm's buckwheat.

Location and Contact Information