6.4 Federal Conservation Partners
projects that implement species, habitat, and ecosystem conservation and provide public recreation opportunities, preserve open space, protect water quality, and bufer military activities. Sections 6.4 through 6.9 highlight federal and state agencies, organizations, and initiatives that are key partners for implementing the conservation goals of this Plan. Appendices L and M provide additional information about important programs and initiatives that implement this Plan.
6.4 Federal Conservation Partners 6.4.1 US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
Te mission of USFWS is working with others to conserve, protect, and enhance fsh, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the continuing beneft of the American people. In 2006, USFWS leadership endorsed Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC) as the conserva- tion approach the agency would use to achieve its mission in the 21st Century. Te SHC approach is built on fve main components (biological planning, conservation design, conservation delivery, outcome-based monitoring, and assumption driven research) that compel USFSW to align expertise, capability, and operations across programs in a unifed efort to achieve mutually aspired biological outcomes. USFWS includes National Wildlife Refuges, National Fish Hatcheries, Law Enforcement, Ecological Services ofces, and Migratory Birds ofces. In North Carolina, there are two Ecological Services ofces, located in Asheville and Raleigh, that oversee listing and recov- ery of federally endangered and threatened species in the state. Tey also provide fsh and wildlife expertise to large-scale planning eforts in the areas of energy, transportation, and water and coastal development. Ecological Services ofces host the Coastal Partners for Fish and Wildlife Programs, which focus on habitat restoration. Tere are 11 wildlife refuges across the state, each with Comprehensive Conservation Plans. Tese refuges are Alligator River, Cedar Island, Currituck, Mackay Island, Mattamuskeet, Mountain Bogs, Pea Island, Pee Dee, Pocosin Lakes, Roanoke River, and Swanquarter. Landscape Conservation Cooperatives (LCCs) are public-private partnerships initiated by USFWS that provide the expertise needed to support conservation planning, implemen- tation, and evaluation on landscape scales. Tese LCCs are generating the tools, methods, and data that managers need to carry out conservation using the SHC approach. Tey also promote collaboration among their members in defning shared conservation goals. Tese LCCs consider landscape-scale stressors, including climate change, habitat fragmentation, invasive species, and water scarcity as partners work to support landscapes capable of sus- taining healthy populations of fsh, wildlife, plants, and cultural resources.
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2015 NC Wildlife Action Plan
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