About Us

Our Mission

The WFRC conducts research and provides technical assistance to support the best possible stewardship of the Nation's natural resources, emphasizing fish populations and aquatic ecosystems of the West. The Center’s mission is to sustain the health, diversity, and productivity of fishery and aquatic resources of western public lands for the use and enjoyment of present and future generations.

Research at the WFRC focuses on the environmental factors responsible for the creation, maintenance, and regulation of fish populations and their interactions in aquatic communities and ecosystems. Species in decline and those that are threatened by extinction receive special attention. The natural resources of particular interest to the Center include Pacific salmon; western trout, charr, and resident riverine fishes; desert and inland fishes; and aquatic ecosystems and their resources (e.g., Puget Sound, and Columbia and Klamath River basins). Resource information needs within the DOI range from inventory and zoogeographic descriptions, to detailed characterizations of populations and their habitats, to an understanding of ecosystem processes and influences on resource distributions, abundance, and productivity. Considering the vastness of the West, together with the broad spectrum of resource issues, the Center program is comprehensive in its inclusion of evolutionary life strategies, life history stages, environmental settings, habitats, and ecological linkages. In order to cover the range of habitats, stressors and effects, and conditions experienced by individuals and populations, projects extend from the bench to watershed, and regional scales. Because a key goal is to improve predictions about the magnitude and extent to which human activities and natural changes influence important fish populations, habitats, and aquatic ecosystems, there is an increasing emphasis on predictive modeling, visualization products, and decision support systems. A constant challenge is delivering information in a palatable manner to society and policy makers to ensure that their actions are science based.

Entire ecosystems are changing quickly in the West as a result of human activity and invasive species. Some are in serious decline and are under pressure from water and land development, grazing, mining, harvest practices, and invasive species. As a result, some species such as salmon and many species of inland fishes are in jeopardy. Managers charged with overseeing natural resources face major dilemmas, but they often do not have adequate biological and physical information necessary to make informed decisions. Increasing demands for water, coupled with changing water quality and quantity conditions, present significant new challenges to managers of aquatic resources and ecosystems. The WFRC is working with other USGS disciplines to develop new information and tools to improve management of water and biological resources in terms of environmental flows, ecological processes, and science in support of aquatic habitat restoration needs.

Our Vision

The most recent 5-Year Center Strategic Plan was completed in October 2005. The Strategic Plan describes Center’s capabilities and, importantly, re-adopted the Center’s vision for “good science, well managed” with minor modifications. This original vision harkens back to the National Biological Survey, but remains just as relevant to science and management today. In recognition of USGS goals for a Rewarding Environment, the WFRC vision was revised to incorporate “USGS Guiding Principles” in recognition of its people. The goal is for all employees to maintain a high degree of personal and professional integrity.

Good science will be:

Innovative: reflecting a culture of creativity;
Useful: policy neutral but policy relevant to the resources and their managers;
Accurate: objective and replicable;
Timely: responsive to the needs of effective resource stewardship; and
Effectively delivered: findings will be reported through appropriate outlets.

Science well-managed will mean:

Collaboration with resource managers will be sought out in project conception and development;
Proposals and projects will be peer and policy reviewed per USGS directives;
Funding will follow scientific excellence and conservation need;
Collaboration will be valued and sought;
Excellence will be rewarded in career development;
Each member of the WFRC community will understand the Center’s scientific mission;
Each participant will be valued for their contribution(s) toward achievement.

Guiding Principles mean employees:

Are respectful: honor the roles and responsibilities of others and treat each other with dignity;
Are accountable: take personal responsibility, reward desirable behaviors and results, are decisive and consistent, hold others accountable, communicate clear expectations for the job;
Communicate: are good listeners, are honest with the message delivered, admit when they are wrong, are flexible;
Encourage: nurture and challenge, provide a safe and rewarding environment, provide clear directions;
Focus: strive toward WFRC vision/mission, accept change, are resilient, think beyond their own discipline; and
Collaborate: work as a team, coordinate with others, and keep others informed.

With these science, management, and “people” practices in play, the employees of the Center will have opportunities to pursue and participate in multi- and interdisciplinary approaches to complex, conservation problems. Our vision is to create a forward-looking science environment, where WFRC scientists are known and recognized for “making a difference”. At the heart of this vision is our belief that scientific excellence will attract the brightest and best to work at the Center and foster productive collaborations with others.