U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

Image
Yurok Tribe to release condors in California

Yurok Tribe to release condors in California

Yurok tribal tradition holds the California condor as sacred, with ancient stories saying the giant birds fly closest to the sun and are the best messengers to carry prayers. Now, after five years of research, the far northern California-based tribe has received permission to release captive-bred…

Image
Moving Back Home Together: Rarest Native Animals Find Haven on Tribal Lands

Moving Back Home Together: Rarest Native Animals Find Haven on Tribal Lands

In the employee directory of the Fort Belknap Reservation, Bronc Speak Thunder’s title is buffalo wrangler. In 2012, Mr. Speak Thunder drove a livestock trailer in a convoy from Yellowstone National Park that returned genetically pure bison to tribal land in northeastern Montana for the first time…

Image
7 Tribal Programs That Protect Our Winged and Four-Legged Brothers

7 Tribal Programs That Protect Our Winged and Four-Legged Brothers

The news is full of sad stories about dying animals, species of all kinds being wiped out, and the random shooting of animals, among other depressing events. Amid all that it’s easy to forget that efforts aplenty are afoot to reverse the declines, save species, restore habitat and pull endangered…

Image
Chickasaw Fishery Saves Endangered Species While Sustaining Fishermen and Tourism

Chickasaw Fishery Saves Endangered Species While Sustaining Fishermen and Tourism

Nothing elevates the hope and heart rate of an angler more than hearing that first predawn “ZWIIINNGGG” of a casting reel as fishing line slices through the early morning air and the lure plops into the water. Whether it’s the first or last day of the season, fishermen hope that is a dinner bell…

Image
20 Pounds? Not Too Bad, for an Extinct Fish

20 Pounds? Not Too Bad, for an Extinct Fish

For most fishermen, a 20-pound trout is a trophy, but for Paiute tribe members and fish biologists here the one Matt Ceccarelli caught was a victory. That Lahontan cutthroat trout he caught last year, a remnant of a strain that is possibly the largest native trout in North America, is the first…