Conservation Actions
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's Southeast Regional Office has approximately 32 partners biologists delivering proactive conservation by working closely with landowners through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife (PFW) Program. They work with landowners to restore streams and wetlands, bottomland hardwood forests, longleaf pine, native prairie, and caves and karsts ecosystems. Learn more about their work.
A report on a five-year pilot to determine the effectiveness of our work with private landowners for conserving six species (black pine snake, elfin-woods warbler, gopher tortoise, slabside pearly mussel, yellowcheek darter and Everglades bully) is available here: Partners in Candidate Conservation Pilot (PDF, 2.7MB)
Gopher Tortoise
Previous draft versions of Gopher Tortoise strategy:
August 22, 2012 Webinar Presentation: Download (7 MB .PPTX) or view below
The Candidate Conservation Agreement for the gopher tortoise, signed in 2008 and revised in 2009 and 2012, is a cooperative effort among state, federal, non-governmental and private organizations. Under the agreement, signatories collectively report 4.5 million acres of potential habitat and approximately 24,338 gopher tortoises. They have conducted 390,000 acres of prescribed burning and restored 350,000 acres of habitat.
Robust Redhorse
The robust redhorse, not seen in more than a century, was rediscovered in the early 1990s in the Oconee River below a hydropower dam at Lake Sinclair. In 2002, a Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances was signed by FWS, the Georgia Department of Natural Resources and Georgia Power, which owns and operates the dam. Together, they agreed to establish a refugial population in the Ocmulgee River below Georgia Power’s Lloyd Shoals Dam and increase understanding of habitat requirements and life history of the robust redhorse. Under the CCAA, Georgia DNR stocked the fish in the Ocmulgee, and Georgia Power is funding research studies of the Ocmulgee population.
Spring Pygmy Sunfish
The spring pygmy sunfish is an extremely rare and imperiled species, and is of concern to the Service, other biologists, and the landowners whose properties contain the species. It is endemic to spring-fed wetlands associated with the Tennessee River in Lauderdale and Limestone Counties in northern Alabama. A Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances was signed in June 2012 with a landowner who has agreed to help conserve approximately 60 percent of the known range of the species with best management practices on agricultural lands.
Greater Adams Cave Beetle and Lesser Adams Cave Beetle
In 2001, the Service elevated these species to candidate species status (64 Federal Register 54808-54832). These two species are only known to occur in Adams Cave in Madison County, Kentucky The purpose of this CCAA, signed in March 2005, is for the Service to join with Southern Conservation Corporation to implement conservation measures for the beetles.
Camp Shelby Burrowing Crayfish
The Mississippi Museum of Natural Sciences, Mississippi Army National Guard at Camp Shelby, DeSoto National Forest and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have developed this CCA through cooperative effort in order to significantly reduce or eliminate any current or potential threats to the CSBC and its habitat to the degree that it is unlikely the species will become threatened or endangered in the forseeable future.
Speckled Pocketbook and Yellowcheek Darter
This Agreement is part of an application for an Enhancement of Survival Permit (Permit) associated with a programmatic Safe Harbor Agreement (SHA) for the endangered speckled pocketbook (Lampsilis streckeri) and an application for a Permit associated with a programmatic Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA) for the yellowcheek darter (Etheostoma moorei). Both the SHA and CCAA and associated Permit will target non-federal lands in the upper Little Red River Watershed of Arkansas whose owners are willing to engage in voluntary conservation actions for the two species. The parties involved are the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, The Nature Conservancy's Arkansas Field Office, the Nautral Resources Conservation Service and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
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Gopher tortoise. Photo: Rob Tawes, USFWS. |
Robust redhorse. Photo: Georgia Department of Natural Resources. |
Spring Pygmy Sunfish. Photo: Conservation Fisheries, Inc. |
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