What We Do
The Science Applications program is the only federally funded program established to coordinate conservation planning and implementation across jurisdictions. Today, Science Applications plays a vital national leadership and coordination role in the implementation of large-scale landscape conservation. The program works with partners to promote habitat conservation across the country, recognizing that different geographies, conservation challenges and needs require a tailored approach. Successful outcomes of the program's work can take the form of alleviating habitat stressors, and proactive and voluntary conservation actions to conserve at-risk species, often precluding the need for regulatory interventions.
Management and Conservation
The program works with a myriad of conservation partners across the country to develop regional conservation goals that support local collaborations and decision making. This scaled and collaborative approach to conservation stitches local conservation and planning efforts into larger landscape-scale collaboratives. Conservation at the scale that is needed in this country to meet biodiversity goals cannot rely on isolated efforts of agencies or organizations. Science Applications therefore works with national and regional entities, and with local communities, to incorporate local needs into a larger conservation framework.
Science Applications also integrates with and supports other collaborative landscape efforts, such as the Migratory Bird Joint Ventures, National Fish Habitat Partnerships, and the Network for Landscape Conservation. Science Applications continues to be a unique federal program – one that is sorely needed as we work to conserve America's wildlife.
Science Support
Large landscape conservation efforts are often accompanied by a wide array of science needs. Science Applications works with partners to identify gaps in knowledge around shared conservation priorities, and then works collaboratively to provide technical assistance, tools, and coordination support to inform conservation strategies and management actions. Science Applications also directly supports other Service programs by providing guidance, information, and tools that inform decision-making for refuge management, at-risk and endangered species management, data and evidence management, and other conservation priorities.
Strategic Habitat Conservation
Strategic Habitat Conservation is an adaptive management framework the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service adopted in 2017 for making decisions about where and how to deliver habitat conservation effectively and efficiently to achieve specific biological outcomes. It is an iterative process that requires us to set explicit objectives, make strategic decisions about our actions, document and test assumptions, monitor outcomes, and continually reassess and improve our approaches—all critical steps in dealing with a range of landscape-scale resource issues.