Features
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Mazama pocket gopher screening protocol
The Service is announcing a Mazama pocket gopher screening protocol for local jurisdictions in the range of the listed subspecies in Pierce and Thurston Counties.
MPG Dear Interested Party letter and screening protocol checklist
MPG Consultant List (July 25, 2018) -
New Video Highlights Partner Efforts to Protect Oregon Spotted Frog
Check out this amazing video about Oregon spotted frog, a federally threatened species, and how biologists and partners are working to protect its habitats in Oregon's Deschutes River Basin.
Video link: Protecting Oregon Spotted Frog in the Deschutes River Basin
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Environmental Contaminants Program in WA Story Maps
Do you want to learn about the work being done to plan and respond to pollution? Click on one of the following Story Map links to learn more about where we work, the work that we do, and our shared consequences with the environment.
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Pre-spawn Mortality Research Progresses
Ken King, biological science technician with USFWS, and partners continue to explore pre-spawn mortality in western Washington. To learn more about stormwater impacts and potential solutions to Coho Pre-Spawn Mortality, please watch The Nature Conservancy video made in partnership with the Puget Sound Stormwater Science Team.
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Connecting Young Fly Fishers with Nature
Every summer, the Olympia Council of Trout Unlimited—one of our office’s 2017 Connecting People with Nature grantees—partners with several other northwest Washington fishing groups to hold the NW Youth Conservation and Fly Fishing Academy. Experience the adventures of the academy and its young campers in this vibrant Story Map!
Conservation Highlight
Proposed Island Marble Butterfly CCAA

The USFWS and WDFW have been developing a programmatic Candidate Conservation Agreement with Assurances (CCAA), a voluntary way for landowners to help conserve the island marble butterfly while receiving regulatory assurances. The island marble butterfly is proposed for listing as an Endangered species. To learn more about what the CCAA is and how it would work, please visit our Island Marble Butterfly CCAA webpage.
Recent News
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Service Seeks Public Comment on Proposed Wind Facility
The Service is seeking public comment on a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) and draft Habitat Conservation Plan (HCP) for a proposed wind energy project in Lewis and Thurston counties, Washington. A 45-day comment period opens November 30, 2018. Comments may be submitted through January 14, 2019.
Federal register notice
News Release with Public Meeting info
Draft EIS
Draft HCP and Appendices

The Joint Base Lewis-McChord Sentinel Landscape
Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) supports military training while also hosting 90% of the remaining prairie habitat in the South Puget Sound. Through the Sentinel Landscapes Partnership, the Departments of Agriculture, Interior, and Defense work with a variety of partners to promote working lands, protect wildlife species and habitat, and ensure military readiness at the base.
The Hyporheic Zone
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Video Reveals Little Known World of Riverbeds
Not all that you see when you look at a river is above ground. There is a hidden world that exists beneath the bottom, in the vast network of interconnected spaces between the pebbles that make up the streambed. Scientists call this the hyporheic zone. The hyporheic zone is a place where water flowing in the stream channel percolates down into the streambed, mixes with groundwater, and reemerges to join the surface water somewhere downstream. The hyporheic zone is important because it helps to cool, filter, and cleanse the stream water, and also because strange, vital things are living there.
Watch “The Secret Life of Rivers,” a short video introduction to the world of the hyporheic zone.
- USFWS Newsletters USFWS Scientific Journals