Charleston Ecological Services Field Office

							                           U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service


                          Charleston
                          Ecological Services Field Office
                                                             Photos (top to bottom)                      Services Provided To
                                                             Endangered wood stork.                      ■	Private citizens.
                                                             Coastal ecosystem habitat.                  ■	   Community groups, local
                                                                                                              governments, and schools.
                                                             South Carolina focus area
photo: L. Duncan




                                                             partnership.                                ■    Partners associated with
                                                                                                              the Lowcountry Focus Area
                                                             Endangered red cockaded                          Initiative, Land Trusts, and other
                                                             woodpecker.                                      conservation easement holders.
                                                             Station Facts                               ■    Federal and state agencies seeking
                                                             ■	 Established: 1973.                            approval on federally funded
                                                             ■	   Staff: 15.                                  activities that may impact federally
                                                                                                              listed species, wetlands, migratory
                                                             Station Goals                                    birds, anadromous fish, and other
                                                             ■	 Conserve biodiversity of the                  trust resources.
                                                                South Carolina Coastal Plain by
                                                                perpetuating healthy, dynamic            Activity Highlights
                                                                coastal ecosystems.                      ■ Review of over 500 federally
                                                                                                           funded, licensed, or permitted
photo: Ed Eudaly




                                                             ■	   Promote landscape scale and              projects annually for potential
                                                                  ecosystem planning efforts to            impacts to wetlands, endangered
                                                                  conserve and restore fish and            species, and other fish and wildlife.
                                                                  wildlife habitats in South Carolina
                                                                  and the associated Savannah-           ■    Coordinate habitat conservation
                                                                  Santee-Pee Dee Ecosystem.                   planning efforts in S.C. with private
                                                                                                              landowners, State agencies, and
                                                                  Conduct interagency consultation,           with the Service’s Regional Office.
photo: Bruce Richardson




                                                             ■
                                                                  habitat conservation planning
                                                                  activities, candidate conservation,    ■    Serve as the base-of-operations
                                                                  listing and recovery activities for         for the Service’s S.C. Coastal
                                                                  33 federally listed endangered,             Ecosystems program.
                                                                  threatened, and proposed species,      ■    Provide technical assistance to
                                                                  three candidate species, and                U.S. Department of Agriculture
                                                                  94 species of concern in South              agencies in the implementation
                                                                  Carolina.                                   of conservation provisions of
                                                             ■    Reduce impacts to fish and wildlife         Farm Bill.
                                                                  and their habitats in South Carolina   ■    Provide technical assistance to EPA
                                                                  from federally funded or authorized         and South Carolina on investigation
                                                                  projects.                                   and cleanup of contaminant sites.
 photo: USFWS




                                                             ■    Restore and improve fish and           ■    Coordinate national recovery
                                                                  wildlife habitat on private lands.          efforts on three Federally listed
                                                             ■    Identify, reduce, and prevent               species.
                                                                  contamination of fish and wildlife
                          Jay Herrington, Field Supervisor        resources through technical
                          Ecological Services                     assistance, investigations,
                          Charleston Ecological Services          monitoring, and technical reviews of
                          Field Office                            environmental contaminant issues.
                          176 Croghan Spur Road
                          Suite 200                          ■	   Conduct education and outreach
                          Charleston, SC 29407                    activities in support of fish and
                          Phone: 843/727 4707 ext. 15             wildlife conservation.
                          Fax: 843/727 4218
                          E-mail: jay_herrington@fws.gov
  U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

Questions and Answers                     Why is it important to protect
Does the Endangered Species Act stop      wetlands?
development?                              Wetlands provide a number of
The Charleston Field office reviews       public benefit functions including
more than 500 projects each year,         provision of valuable fish and wildlife
none of which have been stopped.          habitat including habitat for many
However, recommendations have been        federally listed species, enhancement
made on some projects to avoid and        of water quality through filtration
minimize impacts to federally listed      and purification of river overflow
and proposed species and wetlands         waters and stormwater runoff, flood
resources. The Endangered Species         protection through storage and slow
Act provides flexible tools (e.g.,        release of floodwaters and stream
habitat conservation planning, inter-     stabilization. They also are important
agency consultations) so that solutions   producers of timber products and
can be found to allow projects to         foodstuffs which fuel the aquatic food
proceed while protecting the species.     web. Approximately 37 percent of
                                          South Carolina’s wetland resources
What are the Service’s Trust              have been lost since colonial times.
Resources?
Trust Resources under the management
jurisdiction of the Fish and Wildlife     Why is the red-cockaded woodpecker
Service are anadromous fish,              (RCW) considered an endangered
migratory birds, endangered and           species when it is so widespread?
threatened species, their habitats        The RCW lives in mature pine
and Service lands (primarily national     forests, usually those with long-leaf
wildlife refuges).                        pines more than 80 years old and
                                          loblolly pine more than 70 years
What is the SC Coastal Ecosystems         old. It is currently distributed on
Program?                                  the remaining fragmented parcels
The South Carolina Coastal                of suitable pine forests in 13
Ecosystems Program, established in        southeastern states. About 4,500
1995, is one of 11 Coastal Programs       family units of RCWs are estimated
the Service has initiated nationwide.     to occur in this range, representing
The goal of the program is to             about one percent of the woodpecker’s
conserve biodiversity by perpetuating     original range. The RCW is one of
healthy, dynamic, coastal ecosystems.     numerous federally listed, proposed,
Its intent is to develop and implement    and candidate species associated
ecosystem based policies and actions      with the longleaf pine ecosystem.
in partnerships with Federal, state       However, more than 98 percent of
and local agencies, non-governmental      presettlement longleaf pine forests in
organizations, and the private sector.    the southeastern coastal plain have
In South Carolina, the program works      been lost. There is still hope for the
closely with partners in the five major   RCW and the associated ecosystem,
coastal Focus Areas to maintain           with continuing cooperative efforts. In
natural ecosystem diversity, functions    fact, some populations of RCWs are
and productivity. The primary tool to     now stable or increasing and habitat is
carry out this focused area approach      being restored.
to ecosystem protection is the
placement of voluntary conservation
easements. These voluntary
easements can lead to conservation
of a mixture of upland and wetland
habitats that would otherwise be
difficult to protect. Because public
lands are expensive to acquire and
maintain, these efforts of private land
owners are a cost effective way to
conserve habitat.