The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) https://www.fws.gov/ is responsible for conserving and managing fish, wildlife, plants, and habitats.  Through natural resource conservation it provides communities with healthier environments, clean water, flood control, and economic strength. FWS was initially established in 1871 as the U.S. Commission on Fish and Fisheries and it became the Fish and Wildlife Service in 1939.  Legal authority for FWS begins at 16 USC 742(a) https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?path=/prelim@title16/chapter9&edition=prelim and regulations governing it can be found beginning at 50 CFR 1 https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-50/chapter-I.

FWS administers the Endangered Species Act https://www.fws.gov/species/endangered-species and many other statutes and programs including the Duck Stamp Program https://www.fws.gov/service/duck-stamps used to support bird habitat conservation.  FWS administers numerous national wildlife refuges nationwide https://www.fws.gov/places-go/national-wildlife-refuge-system along with fish hatcheries https://www.fws.gov/places-go/national-fish-hatchery-system; National Wild and Scenic Rivers https://www.fws.gov/rivers/; and wilderness areas https://www.fws.gov/places-go/wilderness  The Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge https://www.fws.gov/refuge/muscatatuck ,east of Seymour, is one of Indiana’s three national wildlife refuge with Big Oaks near Madison and the Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge and Management area near Oakland City being the other.

FWS’s 2027 congressional budget request was for $1.3 billion https://www.doi.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2026-04/2027bibfws508.pdf and its workforce exceeds 7,000 https://www.openfeds.org/agencies/IN.

This blog post was submitted by Bert Chapman, Purdue University.