Projects and Research

We use science and innovative technology to manage and conserve terrestrial and aquatic resources. Collaboratively with partners, we seek to effectively meet today's complex conservation challenges. Learn about some of our projects below.

The Oregon Department of State Lands is developing a Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for the Elliott State Forest in Oregon’s Coos and Douglas Counties. The plan will balance forest research and management activities with the conservation of rare species and their habitat on the Elliott State Forest. The Service prepared a draft Environmental Impact Statement to analyze the potential...

LATEST NEWS: The Service published a Notice of Availability for a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and draft Barred Owl Management Strategy that addresses the threat of the non-native and invasive barred owl to native northern and California spotted owls. The 60-day public comment period for these documents closed January 16, 2024. We held two public meetings during the...

Voluntary conservation through Sage-Grouse Candidate Conservation Agreements with Assurances (CCAAs) support the ecological integrity and uplift of Oregon’s privately owned rangelands. 

Voluntary conservation on privately-owned rangelands is a cornerstone of sagebrush and sage-grouse conservation. Actions that maintain and improve sagebrush ecosystem health also benefit overall...

The Oregon spotted frog is the most aquatic native frog in the Pacific Northwest and its habitats include lakes, ponds, wetlands and riverine sloughs. This species has been documented in British Columbia, Washington, Oregon, and California. Unfortunately, this frog has lost 78 percent of its former range and has been extirpated (locally extinct but exists elsewhere) from California....

The northern spotted owl is one of the most studied birds in the world. Monitoring spotted owl populations throughout the species’ range in Washington, Oregon, and California is an extensive effort conducted among several agencies and partners. These efforts are not designed to count the number of individual spotted owls but rather to gather sampling data from which population trends are...

Using Beaver for Climate Change and Conservation Benefits

Beavers play an incredibly important role in our world, altering and shaping the landscape. As nature's "engineers," they build dams that provide deep water that protects them from predators, gives them access to plentiful food, and provides underwater entrances to their dens. Their tree-felling and dam-building activities create...

There are 740,000 acres in California and Jackson County, Oregon, which are designated as critical habitat for 15 wetland animals and plants listed as threatened or endangered under the Federal Endangered Species Act, by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  The four animal species include:  Conservancy fairy shrimp, longhorn fairy shrimp, vernal pool tadpole shrimp, and vernal pool...

Bull trout were once abundant and widely distributed in Oregon's Willamette Basin, including the Clackamas River. They were an important component of the river’s native fish assemblage that evolved over thousands of years. Unfortunately, this native char was extirpated from the Clackamas River Subbasin and had not been seen in the Clackamas River since 1963. Bull trout were listed as...

Bull trout were listed as threatened under the ESA in 1998 due to declining populations. The USFWS recommends monitoring populations in subbasins where little is known about the populations, including the Grande Ronde and Imnaha Subbasins. Redd counts have been conducted for over 20 years in the Wallowa Mountains of NE Oregon and is important for determining relative abundance and distribution...

The goal of this experiment was to test the feasibility of barred owl removal to determine whether it improves conditions for spotted owls. We removed barred owls from less than one twentieth of one percent of the range of the barred owl.

USFWS Wraps up Experimental Removal of Barred Owls for the Conservation of Northern Spotted Owls.


The Barred Owl Removal Experiment...