User:Ryschtaar/project2/page1/USFWS

United States Fish and Wildlife Service
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service manages

"the 93 million-acre National Wildlife Refuge System of more than 520 National Wildlife Refuges and thousands of small wetlands and other special management areas. Under the Fisheries program we also operate 69 National Fish Hatcheries, 64 fishery resource offices and 78 ecological services field stations."

Disposal
The following excerpt was taken from the Congressional Research Service Report Federal Land Ownership: Current Acquisition and Disposal Authorities.

"The [United States Fish and Wildlife Service] does not have general authority to dispose of its lands. With certain exceptions, wildlife refuge lands administered by the FWS can be disposed only by an act of Congress (16 U.S.C. §§ 668dd(a)(5) and (6)). For refuge lands reserved from the public domain, FLPMA prohibits the Secretary of the Interior from modifying or revoking any withdrawal which added land to the NWRS (43 U.S.C. § 1714(j)).  For acquired lands, disposal is allowed only if: (1) the disposal is part of an authorized land exchange (16 U.S.C. §§ 668dd(a)(6) and (b)(3)); or (2) the Secretary determines the lands are no longer needed and the Migratory Bird Conservation Commission approves the disposal (§ 668dd(a)(5)).  In the latter case, the disposal must recover the acquisition cost or be at the fair market value (whichever is higher)."

Tribal Wildlife Grant
The Goal of the Tribal Wildlife Grant is to

"Provide funds to Federally recognized Tribal governments to develop and implement programs for the benefit of wildlife and their habitat, including species of Native American cultural or traditional importance and species that are not hunted or fished."

The application process is nationally competitive and proposals are evaluated on several criteria:


 * resource benefit,
 * performance measures,
 * work plan,
 * budget,
 * capacity building and
 * their partnerships and contributions.

Proposals may include activities such as


 * planning for wildlife and habitat conservation,
 * fish and wildlife conservation and management actions,
 * fish and wildlife related laboratory and field research,
 * natural history studies,
 * habitat mapping,
 * field surveys and population monitoring,
 * habitat preservation,
 * conservation easements, and
 * public education that is relevant to the project.

The 2006 issued report Tribal Wildlife Grant and Tribal Landowner Incentive Program includes project summaries from 2003-2006. Two projects expressly focused on conservation easements, one by the Duckwater Tribe (page 34) and the other by the Puyallup Tribe (page 37).

Tribal Landowner Incentive Program
The Tribal Landowner Incentive Program is also a competitive grant program, the purpose of which is to provide funding for "the protection, restoration and management of habitat to benefit species at risk, including Federally-listed endangered or threatened species, as well as proposed or candidate species."

The U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service has several other active programs operated in conjunction with Native American partners including law enforcement and fisheries and habitat conservation. For general information on FWS programs, visit the Native American Liaison page.