"The wild things and places belong to all of us."
-- J. Drew Lanham
Florida manatee swims in shallow water toward camera.
Welcome to Georgia ES

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About Us

At Georgia Ecological Services, we are working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife, and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.

Our team is based out of three field offices located in Athens, Fort Moore, and Townsend, Georgia. With expertise ranging from mountains to estuaries, our biologists are working to conserve rare and imperiled species, like the Etowah darter and the eastern indigo snake, and promote the restoration of Georgia’s heritage landscapes, such as longleaf pine ecosystems. Learn more about our Projects & Research.

What We Do

We work with communities across Georgia and the southeastern United States to support conservation through: Endangered Species Listing and Recovery, Project Planning and Review, and Habitat Restoration.

To learn more about ways that you and your community can support conservation, check out our Projects and Research and Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. To request an Endangered Species Act review of your project, please visit Project Planning and Review.

Services
Butterfly rests on tall flowering plant.

The purpose of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is to provide a means to conserve the ecosystems upon which endangered and threatened species depend and provide a program for the conservation of such species. The ESA directs all federal agencies to participate in conserving these species....

Mojave desert tortoise

Since two-thirds of federally listed species have at least some habitat on private land, and some species have most of their remaining habitat on private land, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) has developed an array of tools and incentives to protect the...

Adult island marble butterfly resting on a blade of grass.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) considers candidate species to be those plants and animals that are candidates for listing under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). These are species for which we have enough information regarding their biological status and threats to propose them as...

Juvenile gopher tortoise

Conservation banking is a market-based system for conserving species and their habitat. It consists of a partnership between a landowner, one or more government agencies, and the community of developers and others who implement or fund projects that adversely affect endangered or threatened...

Our Organization

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...
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,...
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...
Gathering of Puffins on brown rock
The Coastal Program is one of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s most effective resources for restoring and protecting fish and wildlife habitat on public and privately-owned lands. We play an important role in promoting the Service’s mission and priorities, delivering landscape-scale...

Our Species

Georgia is home to more than 70 species of plants and animals protected under the Endangered Species Act. 

Our team of biologists at Georgia Ecological Services are the national lead for recovery efforts for 20 federally threatened or endangered species. We also work with other federally protected species that occur in our service area – including threatened and endangered species for which other offices have the recovery lead, and species protected under other laws, such as the bald eagle, protected under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act and the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.

Low growing plant with three mottled leaves growing radially and dark purple flowers at the center

Relict trillium is a rhizotomous perennial plant that can be identified by its whorl of three leaves that sit on an S-shaped hairless stem (Chafin 2007). The ovate to elliptic leaves have distinctive shades of light green, dark green, bronze-green, and dark purple and will often show a silver...

FWS Focus
A jet black snake with reddish orange coloring around it's face on sandy soil

Average adult size is 60-74 inches (152-188 cm), record is 103.5 inches (262.8 cm). Adults are large and thick bodied. The body is glossy black and in sunlight has iridescent blue highlights. The chin and throat is reddish or white, and the color may extend down the body. The belly is cloudy...

FWS Focus
A baby tortoise perches in grass and looks at the camera.

The gopher tortoise is a large, (shell 15 to 37 centimeters or 5.9 to 14.6 inches long) dark-brown to grayish-black terrestrial turtle with elephantine hind feet, shovel-like forefeet, and a gular projection beneath the head on the yellowish, hingeless plastron or undershell (Ernst and Barbour...

FWS Focus
A fish with an elongate thin body and dark blue-black horizontal stripe swims in a clear stream.

The blue shiner is a medium-sized minnow that grows to about 100 millimeters (4 inches) in total length. Males are larger than females. Nonbreeding males and females are dusky blue with pale yellow fins. The scales are diamond-shaped and outlined with melanophores. The lateral line is distinct....

FWS Focus
A small thin-bodied fish with a pointed snout, rounded fins, dark saddles, and mottled pattern along its sides.

The Etowah darter is a small, percid fish (1.6-2.2 inch, adult size) that is moderately compressed laterally and has a moderately pointed snout with a terminal, obliquely angled mouth. The body ground shade is medium brown or grayish olive. The lower opercle and branchiostegal rays have a pale...

FWS Focus
Small bodied fish with a blunt snout, rounded fins, three saddles, and a blotched mottled pattern along the sides of its body.

The trispot darter is a small bodied, benthic fish ranging in size from 1.3 – 1.6 inches as adults. The darter has three prominent black dorsal saddles, pale undersurface, and a dark bar below the eye. Scattered dark blotches exist on the fins rays. During the breeding season, males are a...

FWS Focus
A fish with dark brown vertical stripes across its body rests on a bed of small pebbles and gravel.

The Conasauga logperch is a large darter that reaches up to 5.25 inches in length (133 mm). It has a fleshy, pig-like snout, with a tip that extends beyond the upper jaw. There is a prominent tear drop below each eye and a large spot at the base of the caudal fin. The dorsal and caudal fins are...

FWS Focus

Projects and Research

Our team supports conservation at multiple scales, from on-the-ground species monitoring and habitat restoration to broader landscape-level planning.

Learn more about our Projects and Research.

Our Library

Looking for a specific document? Check out our Library Collections.

Snail darter in hand.
This library includes background information about post-delisting monitoring (PDM) and recent PDM plans released for species in the southeast.
Smal flock of white and grey shorebirds in the water. Photo appears to be taken from a distance
To better protect migratory bird populations and provide more certainty for the regulated public, the Service seeks to address human-caused mortality by providing information on beneficial practices to avoid and minimize the incidental injury and killing of migratory birds. The U.S. Fish and...

Get Involved

We rely on strong partnerships and collaboration with state and local governments, non-profit organizations, industry and academic communities across Georgia and the southeast.

We work with federal, state, and local government agencies, universities, private landowners, businesses, and communities to accomplish conservation by protecting and recovering federally-listed, rare, and imperiled species. We assist in restoring habitat through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife and Coastal programs. We coordinate with project managers on federally authorized or funded projects to promote best management practices that avoid or minimize impacts to plant, fish, wildlife, and their habitats across Georgia.

Location and Contact Information