Our Workforce
Science Applications is comprised of partnership coordinators, biologists, data managers, social scientists, administrative support, and geospatial information specialists. Like other Service programs, we have staff presence in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Headquarters and all eight regional offices. Science Applications staff are also embedded at various field offices throughout the country. This gives the program national reach and the ability to support regional, national, and international conservation projects and initiatives for the Service and partners.
Commitment to Equity, Inclusion and Diversity
Science Applications promotes a safe, inclusive, and welcoming work environment where all voices are heard and valued. We are committed to building a program culture where all members of our team feel supported.
Science Applications facilitates partnerships that address shared conservation challenges to create a network of healthy lands and waters where fish, wildlife, plants, and people thrive. We do this by:
- Promoting an inclusive approach to conservation
- Fostering science excellence, integrity, and innovation
- Developing data-driven decision support tools that make collaborative conservation achievable
The program was established in 2009 for the dual purpose of addressing complex conservation challenges using a landscape conservation approach and to help coordinate the organization’s science and data management needs. Early on, a special emphasis was placed on distilling climate science to help natural resource managers implement climate adaptation strategies.
From 2010 through 2017, Science Applications provided significant funding support and personnel who coordinated a network of 22 distinct Landscape Conservation Cooperatives, collectively known as the Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) Network. Our experiences with the LCCs taught us many valuable lessons and we now model a more flexible and inclusive approach to landscape conservation. Products created by the LCCs, such as reports, maps, and landscape conservation design documents, are available to the public through the Science Catalog. In January of 2022, we released a summary report to Congress outlining our transition to the next generation of landscape of conservation. The Report to Committees on Appropriations can be accessed here.
Today, Science Applications plays a vital national leadership and coordination role in the implementation of landscape-level conservation, although no longer in the form of the LCC Network. As authorized, we work with Tribes, Federal agencies, States, non-governmental organizations and other partners to identify and address shared conservation priorities across the country. We focus on convening partners, identifying shared science needs and gaps, setting goals, developing conservation plans, and collaboratively creating applied tools to address climate change climate change
Climate change includes both global warming driven by human-induced emissions of greenhouse gases and the resulting large-scale shifts in weather patterns. Though there have been previous periods of climatic change, since the mid-20th century humans have had an unprecedented impact on Earth's climate system and caused change on a global scale.
Learn more about climate change and other landscape-scale threats. We recognize that every collaborative conservation partnership has science and coordination needs unique to their respective geography and conservation challenge. We therefore customize our level of engagement and support to meet the needs of each individual partnership we work with.