Background and Basics

All conservation actions, e.g., acquiring a wetland easement, selective tree cutting, private lands grassland restoration, etc., occur at a site scale; however, a fundamental presumption of the conservation enterprise is that they collectively contribute to attaining biological objectives expressed at broader spatial scale.

The purpose of Strategic Habitat Conservation framework is to ensure that we use the best process to make decisions about these local conservation actions (what we do and where we do it) to achieve broad-scale objectives as efficiently as possible.

Because the Service is charged with the conservation of species (migratory birds, T&E species, inter-jurisdictional fish, marine mammals and populations that reside on Refuges), our objectives are normally expressed in terms of a population size or response. Learn more