American burying beetle. Credit:© Jay Pruitt.

October 2018
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is publishing the final Environmental Impact Statement for the American Electric Power (AEP) Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) and Incidental Take Permit (ITP). The HCP covers impacts to the American burying beetle (ABB) that may result from AEP maintaining, operating and expanding its electrical facilities in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Texas. FWS is publishing the final Environmental Impact Statement (fEIS) evaluating the direct, indirect and cumulative effects of issuing the ITP, supported by implementing the HCP. The HCP describes the conservation measures they will take to address the potential impact of their activities. The covered activities may impact up to 6,713 acres of occupied ABB habitat over the ITP’s life. The HCP and ITP will be in effect for 30 years. The ROD and ITP issuance will occur no sooner than 30 days after publishing this notice of availability.

Please read the News Bulletin for additional information.

A young boy uses a spotting scope to get a closer look at wildlife. Credit: Steve Hillebrand, USFWS

October 2018
National Wildlife Refuge Week is a great time to celebrate America's national network of lands and waters that conserves and protects our precious wildlife heritage. There are over 565 national wildlife refuges across the country where each year tens of millions of Americans enjoy hiking, fishing, wildlife watching, hunting, family time, and more. Check out a refuge near you.

Find Your Refuge
Special Events Calendar

Black rail flies over marsh grasses. Credit: Jesse Huth.

October 2018
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners are working to protect a small, secretive marsh bird that is in steep decline. Some populations of the eastern black rail along the Atlantic coast have dropped by as much as 90 percent, and with a relatively small total population remaining across the eastern United States, the Service is proposing to list the subspecies as threatened under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). The Service also is using the flexibility provided under section 4(d) of the ESA to tailor protections for the bird, including prohibiting certain activities in known eastern black rail habitat during critical time periods such as nesting and brooding seasons. The proposed rule for the eastern black rail will publish in the Federal Register on Tuesday, October 9. The Service is accepting public comments on the proposal through December 10, 2018.

Read the news release.
Read additional information about the eastern black rail.

Bull Elk at the Wichita Mountains National Wildlife Refuge . Credit: W. Munsterman.

October 2018
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) and the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation are teaming up once again to expand hunting opportunities in the great state of Oklahoma. The two agencies are long time partners with shared goals and a mutual vision of providing high quality hunting experiences for hunters of all ages and interests.

Read the news release.

Barton Springs pool in Austin, Texas. Credit: USFWS.

September 2018
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) joined the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District, the City of Austin, and other partners to celebrate the approval of the Barton Springs Edwards Aquifer Conservation District Habitat Conservation Plan at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. Barton Springs is the fourth largest natural spring in Texas and is considered Austin’s “crown jewel.” Not only does it provide a valuable source of water for almost 70,000 people and businesses but with its constant temperature of 68 degrees, it serves as an icy retreat from the dog days of summer for families, college students, swimmers, and others visiting Austin. As many as 800,000 people visit the pool every year. The HCP along with other conservation efforts will help ensure that this treasure is around for future generations.

Read the entire story.

Black-capped vireo. Credit: © Gil Eckrich.

Final Plan to Ensure Long-Term Health of Recovered Songbird Available
FWS and Partners will monitor black-capped vireo for 12 years

September 2018
On April 16, 2018, the Service delisted the black-capped vireo due to recovery as a result of collaborative conservation efforts with our long-standing partners. To ensure that the species continues to thrive, we are announcing the final Post-Delisting Monitoring Plan (PDMP) for the songbird. The PDMP for the black-capped vireo was developed in cooperation with the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, Fort Hood and Fort Sill Military Installations and The Nature Conservancy of Texas.

Read the news release.
Read the story of the Black-capped vireo recovery.
Read additional information on the final PDMP and the black-capped vireo.

Thirty-four tribal game wardens, rangers and conservation officers from across the region attend the 2018 NAtive American Conservation Officer Training. Credit: USFWS.

September 2018
Southwest Region Native American Liaison, Joe Early worked with the Native American Fish & Wildlife Society (NAFWS) to host a 40 hour training course for 34 tribal game wardens, rangers and conservation officers from Laguna Pueblo, Acoma Pueblo, Isleta Pueblo, Cochiti Pueblo, Santa Clara Pueblo, Santa Ana Pueblo, the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Hualapai Tribe, Jicarilla Apache, White Mountain Apache, Mescalero Apache, Walker River Paiute, Round Valley Indian Tribes, and the Chippewa-Cree Tribe.

Read the entire story.

Desert Bighorn Sheep at Cabeza Prieta NWR. Credit: Sid Sloan, USFWS.

September 2018
Autumn is for remembering. The last light of summer yields to the first beautiful days of fall. This time of year is a communion between what was and what might be. Fall brings with it hunting seasons—and naturally, memories of seasons past. Len Anderson of Tucson, Arizona, a retired high school chemistry and biology teacher and baseball coach, remembers desert bighorn sheep hunts. For with him, it’s a family matter. Three generations of Andersons have a particular attachment to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and hunting bighorns on craggy mountainsides under the desert sun. Len and his father and his son—all three have harvested desert bighorns on the refuge.

Read the entire story.

Grand Jury Indicts "Joe Exotic" for Murder-For-Hire

September 2018
JOSEPH MALDONADO-PASSAGE, also known as Joseph Allen Maldonado, Joseph Allen Schreibvogel, and "Joe Exotic," 55, formerly of Wynnewood, Oklahoma, has been indicted on two counts of hiring a person to commit murder.

Read the entire news release.

Pieces of fraudulent artwork seized by Service special agents. Credit: USFWS

August 2018
U.S. District Judge Judith C. Herrera of the District of New Mexico today sentenced Nael Ali, 54, of Albuquerque, N.M., for violating the Indian Arts and Craft Act (IACA) by fraudulently selling counterfeit Native American jewelry as Indian-Made. Judge Herrera sentenced Ali, who previously pled guilty to two felony IACA charges, to six months of imprisonment followed by a year of supervised release. Ali also was ordered to pay $9,048.78 in restitution.

Read the News Release

A pair of wild whooping cranes land at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge. Credit: Klaus Nigge, USFWS.

August2 2018
The estimates are in and the numbers are impressive! For the 6th year in a row the wild population of endangered whooping cranes that winter at Aransas National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding habitats in south Texas has increased in size and for the first time the population has topped the 500 mark. Learn more about how the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and its partners are keeping these magnificent birds on the road to recovery.

Read the News release.
Read the Survey Report
Learn more about Aransas National Wildlife Refuge

Western long-eared myotis, one of many bat species found in New Mexico caves and abandoned mines. Credit: © Kenneth Ingham.

August 2018
Federal agencies that manage popular caves on public lands in New Mexico are taking disease-prevention precautions and restricting entry to some sites to help prevent spreading the fungus that causes the fatal disease in bats known as white-nose syndrome (WNS).

Recent detections of the fungus that causes WNS in Texas and Wyoming and the confirmation of WNS in Oklahoma and South Dakota have prompted federal lands managers in New Mexico to elevate precautions to protect bats in caves and abandoned mines. Among the locations taking additional decontamination or access measures are Carlsbad Caverns National Park and El Malpais National Monument (National Park Service), Fort Stanton Cave in Lincoln County (Bureau of Land Management), and Cottonwood Cave in Lincoln National Forest (USDA Forest Service).

Read the News Release.
Learn more about White nose syndrome.

California condor soaring through Grand Canyon. Credit: © Chris Parish.

August 2018
There is nothing quite as iconic in the western United States as a California Condor soaring over the red-rock-canyon landscapes of northern Arizona and southern Utah. Thanks to people working together to recover this species, condors have become a fixture in southwestern skies. On National Public Lands day this year, you’re invited to join the recovery effort by witnessing first-hand a spectacular release into the wild of several captive-bred young condors.

California Condors will be released by The Peregrine Fund atop the spectacular cliffs in Vermilion Cliffs National Monument in northern Arizona at 11 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 22. Come join us!

Read the News Release
Learn more about the California Condor in Arizona