Welcome to the Maine Field Office Website. Our goal here is to provide you with information about what your U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Maine Ecological Services Office is doing for you and for the fish and wildlife in our area of responsibility, the State of Maine.

About Us

Maine hosts exceptional biodiversity due to a number of factors, including a wide range of latitude, diverse geographic and geologic features, and a variety of natural communities ranging from coastal and southern Appalachian communities to boreal and subarctic communities at the highest latitudes and elevations. Across this diversity of geographies and biological communities, the Maine Ecological Services Field Office is devoted to the conservation and restoration of fish and wildlife and their habitats. As an office within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services Program, we are responsible for administering the Endangered Species Act, minimizing the impacts of federally licensed, permitted, or funded projects on fish and wildlife resources, identifying and investigating contaminant sources, assisting with conservation project planning, and working with partners to recover and conserve listed species and their habitat throughout Maine. 

What We Do

The conservation of our nation’s most imperiled species is at the heart of our office’s work. Threatened and endangered species conservation drives what we do, from reviewing federally-funded or authorized projects, to proactively working towards the recovery of listed species. Our work is accomplished through collaboration with partners, including other federal agencies, state wildlife and marine resource agencies, tribes, universities, and non-profit organizations.

Our Organization

Maine Field Office biologists work on a variety of conservation related issues and our work can be classified into a number of different programs within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service including Ecological Services, Endangered Species, Listing and Classification, Partners for Fish and Wildlife, and Conservation Planning Assistance. See the additional pages below for specific information regarding each of these programs.

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...
Close up of a California condor. Its pink featherless head contrasts with its black feathers.
We provide national leadership in the recovery and conservation of our nation's imperiled plant and animal species, working with experts in the scientific community to identify species on the verge of extinction and to build the road to recovery to bring them back. We work with a range of public...
A duck flies over a tundra pond.
We use the best scientific information available to determine whether to add a species to (list) or remove from (delist) the federal lists of endangered and threatened wildlife and plants. We also determine whether already listed species should be reclassified from threatened to endangered (uplist...
Partners for Fish and Wildlife: Nevada Coordinator Susan Abele Meets with Pyramid Lake Paiute Tribe Member to Conduct a Site Visit at Pyramid Lake Indian Reservation
The Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program provides free technical and financial assistance to landowners, managers, tribes, corporations, schools and nonprofits interested in improving wildlife habitat on their land. Since 1987, we have helped more than 30,000 landowners to complete more than 50,...
Pronghorn running through sagebrush with natural gas field facility in background.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service works collaboratively with other federal agencies, industries, and other stakeholders to achieve infrastructure development goals in ways that are sustainable and compatible with the conservation of fish, wildlife, and their habitats.

Our Species

The conservation work of our office is primarily focused on the federally listed species that are found throughout the state. Our staff are regional and national experts on a number of federally listed species, including Atlantic salmon, Canada lynx, and Furbish’s lousewort. In addition, our conservation and restoration work often benefits critical habitat of listed species, along with candidate species, and state-listed species.

a cat facing the camera with black tips on its ears

The lynx is a medium-sized cat with long legs, large, well-furred paws, long tufts on the ears, and a short, black-tipped tail. The winter pelage of the lynx is dense and has a grizzled appearance with grayish-brown mixed with buff or pale brown fur on the back, and grayish-white or buff-white...

FWS Focus
Grey, white and black bird on sand in the foreground

Size: 18 cm (7.25 in) in length. Color: Breeding season: Pale brown above, lighter below; black band across forehead; bill orange with black tip; legs orange; white rump. Male: Complete or incomplete black band encircles the body at the breast. Female: Paler head band; incomplete breast band....

FWS Focus
A rusty patched bumble bee visits a wild bergamot flower

Historically, the rusty patched bumble bee was broadly distributed across the eastern United States, Upper Midwest, and southern Quebec and Ontario in Canada. Since 2000, this bumble bee has been reported from only 13 states and 1 Canadian province: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland,...

FWS Focus
A bright orange stem, with five leaves and a flower emerging from the leaf-covered forest floor

The small whorled pogonia is a member of the orchid family. The plant is named for the whorl of five or six leaves near the top of the stem and beneath the flower. The species is listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. 

FWS Focus
This plant is 8 to 40 inches tall and has an upright leafy stem with a flower cluster called an inflorescence. The 3 to 8 inch lance-shaped leaves sheath the stem. Each plant has one single flower spike composed of 5 to 40 white flowers. Each flower has a three-part fringed lip less than 1 inch...
FWS Focus

Projects and Research

Our office is involved in a number of projects working towards recovery of listed species and the conservation of at-risk species. The MEFO Partners for Fish and Wildlife biologist collaborates with private landowners and other partners on projects that restore fish and wildlife habitat. Visit our Projects and Research page to find additional information regarding the current projects biologists at the Maine Field Office are involved in.

Get Involved

As a small field office serving the state of Maine, collaboration with partners is a fundamental tenant of our work and allows for more successful conservation. Through project funding and grants, shared research and data, project coordination, and discussion, there are various opportunities to get involved with our office, or one of our many partners.

Location and Contact Information