They work with a wide variety of partners to accomplish their mission. State fish and wildlife agencies , private conservation groups, federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service and many industry groups and private landowners are all included in the conservation effort underway in the Northeast, and examples are many and varied. County governments protect piping plovers on Long Island; Conservation groups work with us to save estuarine habitat on Chesapeake Bay; wetland restoration projects abound on private land and contaminated habitat is being restored in virtually all of our states. The challenge will only increase with time, as will the commitment of our Ecological Services biologists to meet it.

         The Northeast Region, with its diverse habitats and burgeoning human population offers tremendous challenges for the Ecological Services biologists in our 15 field offices. Oil spills, habitat degradation , invasive species, barrier dams and other factors too numerous to mention are all working against our fish and wildlife resources. Biologists work to reduce or eliminate these threats through habitat restoration, endangered species recovery activities, identification of wetland habitats, assessing and eliminating the impacts of contaminants, minimizing construction impacts, dam removal and fish passage improvements. They are all part of the biologists' daily activities.