Instructions for the Service's Project Review Request in West Virginia
To initiate a technical assistance review from the WVFO, project proponents, agencies, and interest parties should follow the below process.
1. Use the Service's Information, Planning and Consultation system (IPaC) to determine if any listed, proposed or candidate species may be present in the . ( has thorough directions within the system and how-to “Helpful Videos” and FAQs on the landing page.)
If you are not ready to officially submit your project to our office and are only interested in a preliminary list of species that may occur in your project area, or you are interested in exploring the Determination Key questionnaires, please use the IPaC Beta site at the following URL: so that your work is not officially submitted to our office: https://ipacb.ecosphere.fws.gov/
Use the initial project scoping tool to generate a species list by selecting the map tool to either upload a .zip GIS shapefile or draw the delineated action area. (Please note, do not use the state/county list tool for this review, as it will list all species that may occur in that state / county and will not provide project or site-specific information.)
2. Once you have drawn and submitted your project within the system, species tiles will appear for all species that have the potential to occur within your project area. From this page, click “Define Project” to provide more details about your project. You can provide the project name and a short summary of the proposed actions.
3. “Start Review” of your project and follow the steps to request an Official Species List. The Official Species List will include all ESA-listed, proposed, or candidate species that may occur in the vicinity of the action area and includes a map of the action area. IPaC will also generate a list of National Wildlife Refuges in the vicinity of your action area.
4. After you have requested your Official Species List, you will evaluate determination keys and select the Northeast Determination Key. The Northeast Determination Key will walk you through a series of questions to help evaluate potential effects of your proposed project’s actions to listed species and their habitats in West Virginia. At the end of the questions, there will be an option to upload supplemental documents to support the answers you have provided. This is where you will upload the following information (and any other pertinent information):
a. A detailed project description thoroughly describing the proposed actions, including plans and designs of any new construction;
b. The total amount of acreage or linear miles within the project area;
c. A detailed description of onsite habitat, including the size, location and quality (when available) of stream, wetlands, forest and other natural areas, and proposed impacts;
d. The total number of acres of ground disturbance that will result from the project;
e. The number of acres of forested habitat that will be disturbed as part of the project;
f. If relevant, any commitment to horizontal directional drill if it is known that the project will cross a stream containing habitat that supports federally listed species;
- A "frack-out" plan (i.e., description of remedial steps to resolve mechanical or materials failure resulting in hydrofracking water bubbling up through stream substrate) if such a crossing is occurring
g. Identification of locations for both water withdrawals and subsequent water depositions;
h. A description of erosion and sedimentation controls that will be applied to the project and a figure (not engineering drawings) depicting where these controls will be installed
i. Photographs representative of all cover types on the site and encompassing views of the entire site; and
j. If relevant, a description of whether any previous mining has occurred on the site, and if you are aware of any potential mine portals or cave openings that may be in the area.
- If any Phase I analysis of portals was conducted, please include this information
5. When you have completed the Determination Key questionnaire, you will be notified if your project has reached a “no effect”, “may affect, not likely to adversely affect”, or “may affect” determination. Follow through the steps and generate a consistency letter for your project.
6. Save your Official Species List and your consistency letter to the project record. If your project does not have a federal nexus and you reached a determination of “no effect” or “may affect, not likely to adversely affect” for your project, no further action with the WVFO is necessary. If the project has a federal nexus (e.g., Federal funds, permit, etc.), but you are not the federal action agency or its designated (in writing) non-federal representative, the ESA consultation status is incomplete and no project activities should occur until consultation between the Service and the Federal action agency (or designated non-federal representative), is completed. We recommend that you provide the Official Species List and consistency letters to the federal action agency or its designated non-federal representative. If this is the USACE, please provide these documents to the appropriate USACE district office, and they will complete the consultation process with our office. If your project has a Federal nexus through another Federal agency, please provide these documents to that agency. If you are the designated non-Federal representative for a Federal action agency, please keep these files in the project record.
7. If you reached a determination of “may affect” for your project, it does not automatically mean that your project will need to enter formal consultation. However, you will need to submit the project to the WVFO for a more detailed review by our staff.
Please provide your Official Species List, consistency letter, and supplemental documentation uploaded to the system for the project review to the WVFO’s general email box (FW5_WVFO@fws.gov). This office email is a part of our project tracking processes, therefore, project submissions sent to individual WVFO team members cannot be accepted. Include “PROJECT REVIEW REQUEST” in the subject line of your email along with the project's code (e.g., YEAR-#######). Please note: our email has an attachment limit of 25MB, therefore, if your submission exceeds that, please send multiple emails and mark [1 of 2], [2 of 2], etc. in the subject line.
The WVFO Submission Form is intended to aid project proponents in composing complete project descriptions, and you may find this to be a helpful resource. This is indicated as an optional form but is valuable in providing the necessary project description information.
At a minimum, project submissions need the following information:
- a shapefile or spatial coordinates in decimal degrees with a map of the project location;
- a thorough, detailed description of the proposed actions for the project;
- your IPaC Official Species List and copy of DKey consistency letter; and
- the ECOS code (which will be your FWS File Number) identified in the email subject line.
Please do not email or cc your submission to individual team members at the WVFO.
