About the South Carolina Ecological Services Field Office
Our work area covers all of South Carolina. Our mission is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. South Carolina is also home to one recovery office for Red-cockaded woodpeckers, one Law Enforcement office, eight National Wildlife Refuges, and two National Fish Hatcheries.
Station Goals
- Conserve biodiversity of the South Carolina Coastal Plain by perpetuating healthy, dynamic coastal ecosystems.
- Promote landscape scale and ecosystem planning efforts to conserve and restore fish and wildlife habitats in South Carolina and the associated Savannah-Santee-Pee Dee Ecosystem.
- Conduct consultation, habitat conservation planning activities, and candidate conservation activities for 39 federally listed endangered, threatened and proposed species, three candidate species, and 94 species of concern in South Carolina.
- Reduce impacts to fish and wildlife and their habitats in South Carolina from federally funded or authorized projects.
- Improve fish and wildlife habitat on private lands.
- To identify, reduce, and prevent contamination of fish and wildlife resources through technical assistance, investigations, monitoring, and technical reviews of environmental contaminant issues.
- Conduct education and outreach activities in support of fish and wildlife conservation.
Services Provided to
- Private citizens.
- Community groups, local governments and schools.
- Partners associated with the Lowcountry Focus Area Initiative, Land Trusts, and other conservation easement holders.
- Federal and state agencies seeking approval on federally funded activities that may impact federally listed species, wetlands, migratory birds, anadromous fish, and other trust resources.
Activity Highlights
- Review of over 500 federally funded, licensed, or permitted projects annually for potential impacts to wetlands, endangered species, and other fish and wildlife.
- Coordinate habitat conservation planning efforts in S.C. with private landowners, State agencies, and with the Service's Regional Office.
- Serve as the base-of-operations for the Service's S.C. Coastal Ecosystems program.
- rovide technical assistance to U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies in the implementation of conservation provisions of Farm Bill.
- Provide technical assistance to EPA and South Carolina on investigation and cleanup of contaminant sites.
- Established: 1973.
- Staff: 16.
