The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is the lead federal agency responsible for managing the nation’s fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.
Several agencies in the federal government put our country’s conservation laws into action, and the Service’s Ecological Services Program helps lead the way.
One of the Ecological Services Program’s priorities is to provide guidance and expertise to protect wildlife from the impacts of large infrastructure development. The Conservation Planning Assistance Program provides this guidance and expertise.
Many of these projects are critical to our nation’s transition to new energy sources and are key elements to the nation’s response to climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change , including renewable energy development, water management projects, transportation, hydropower, pipelines and transmission lines.
Created on the heels of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Conservation Planning Assistance Program focused on integrating fish and wildlife conservation with large-scale public works projects. Our responsibilities have expanded as the public’s demands for conservation have grown and environmental mandates have broadened.
Our staff have become experts in integrating and jointly addressing the requirements of numerous conservation statutes, such as the National Environmental Policy Act, Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act, Clean Water Act, Endangered Species Act, Migratory Bird Treaty Act, and Federal Power Act.
With this broad mandate, the Conservation Planning Assistance Program has become the Service’s unified voice for fish and wildlife in addressing the effects of development.