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The mission of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is “working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.”
For many people, the wildlife conservation portion of our mission statement is of primary importance. Given that we are the only agency in the federal government whose primary responsibility is the conservation and management of fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats, that is understandable.
However, the words “for the continuing benefit of the American people” are just as important.
We know that nature, and access to our treasured outdoor resources, are essential to the health, well-being, and prosperity of families and communities across America.
Unfortunately, access to the benefits of engaging with and spending time in the natural world is not spread equally.
Environmental justice is about ensuring equitable access of all people to a healthy, sustainable, and resilient environment in which to live, play, work, learn, grow, worship, and engage in cultural and subsistence practices. It also requires the meaningful involvement of all people.
Federal agencies, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, are prioritizing environmental justice efforts to proactively engage communities. Fulfilling our mission means instilling the principles of environ- mental justice into our work in order to consider and meet the needs of present and future generations.
We can, and often already do, just that: We conserve wildlife while addressing impacts for the betterment of all people. Read through many of the stories in this magazine. From Alaska to Florida and spots in between, we are doing strong conservation work that also supports communities with environmental justice concerns.
“Support” is a key word in that sentence. We must ask local communities what they need and how we can help them achieve it.
Every day we struggle with conservation challenges where failure would mean the extinction of a species, and we often come up with new ideas to save them. We must apply that kind of innovative thinking to environmental justice.
I think of Darrell Kundargi, who was named the Service’s 2024 Diversity and Inclusion Champion. In a profile, Darrell explains that he sees it “as my responsibility to uphold the Service’s value of innovation to find a way to connect [a community priority] to the refuge purpose and to our agency’s mission.”
What Darrell explains in theory, you can read about Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge doing in practice.
The Mountain View neighborhood in Albuquerque, New Mexico, deals with elevated rates of cancer and respiratory conditions and needs air quality data. Through the community- and partner-initiated Environmental Justice Air Monitoring Network initiative, Valle de Oro is supporting this need.
The refuge will also use the data to protect wildlife, plants, staff, and visitors.
There is much more about how we are working toward environmental justice in this issue of Fish & Wildlife News, and other stories that didn’t make the magazine.
We released the vision of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service earlier in 2024, which makes clear our support for environmental justice: We envision a future where people and nature thrive in an interconnected way and where every community feels part of and committed to the natural world around us.
The Service is restoring and protecting a healthy environment where all people live, play, work, learn, and grow. It’s a matter of justice and a fundamental duty that we uphold.
We aren’t there yet, but as you can see, we are working toward it.
