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Wildlife

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has adopted an ecosystem approach to conservation because we can't just look at a single animal, species, or piece of land in isolation from all that is around it. We all realize that we are not going to achieve conservation within the boundaries of a National Wildlife Refuge, that we are not going to restore aquatic resources with a National Fish Hatchery, and that listing an endangered species is not going to conserve the system. All of these are interconnected. If we disturb or manage one, all of the others will be affected.

The ecosystem approach is comprehensive. It's based on all of the biological resources within a watershed and it considers the economic health of communities within that watershed. (A watershed is the total land area from which water drains into a single stream, lake, or ocean.)

The Service's mission is "Working with others, to conserve, protect, and enhance fish, wildlife, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people." We can't restore an ecosystem and the plants and animals within it without the assistance of partners.

All of the Service's field units (National Wildlife Refuges, National Fish Hatcheries, Law Enforcement, Ecological Services offices, Fishery Resources Offices) within a watershed combine forces to tackle projects, improving efficiency and effectiveness.

Central to the mission of the Fish and Wildlife Service, along with state natural resource agencies, our private lands partners, and other stakeholders, is providing and protecting a healthy environment for fish and wildlife and people. Fish and wildlife in America represent tremendous environmental, recreational, cultural and social, historical, and economic assets for the American people. The National Wildlife Refuge System (NWRS), the National Fish Hatchery System (NFHS), along with the fish, wildlife, and plants that these systems protect and conserve, enrich people in a great variety of ways.

In today's increasingly complex society, the Service is finding that it is important to identify and express the contributions that fish and wildlife make to the economic well-being of the nation. The Service initiated a multi-phase study to determine the impact of refuges on their local economies. Recreational visits to refuges---31 million annually---generated $401.1 million in sales to regional economies.

The economic benefits of fish and wildlife conservation are but one way to measure the importance of fish and wildlife to people. Some people gain value simply from knowing that wild places and unique species still exist. Although such existence values are hard to measure, these values are confirmed by millions of visitors to the conservation systems under the jurisdiction of the Service.