West Virginia Ecological Services Field Office

To promote the conservation and recovery of federally listed endangered and threatened species, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) West Virginia Field Office's endangered species responsibilities include the following:

• Identifying species that need protection. The Service is responsible for listing, reclassifying and delisting land and freshwater species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), based on an assessment of threats to the species and their habitats.
• Providing biological and regulatory technical assistance to federal agencies through ESA section 7 consultation.
• Providing biological and regulatory technical assistance to non-federal entities (individuals, organizations, companies and agencies) regarding activities that may affect listed species.
• Implementing and coordinating recovery activities for listed species.
• Working with private landowners to avoid and minimize impacts to listed species and to implement actions to benefit listed species.
• Enforcing protections for federally listed species, and tracking their progress towards recovery.
• Providing grants and technical assistance to states to assist with their conservation efforts benefitting species.
• Working in partnership with people who have an interest in the conservation and recovery of federally listed species.
• Evaluating the status of species to determine whether they qualify for listing under the ESA (candidate assessment).
• Implementing conservation actions to prevent the need to list additional species (candidate conservation).

The following are the focal programs that staff in our office work diligently on:

• Community outreach
• Endangered species management
• Invasive species
• Project planning, reviews and requests
• West Virginia Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program