KEYNOTE ADDRESS 



Michael Spear 



Associate Director, Environment 



U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service 



Washington, D.C. 



I would like to provide an overview of Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) 

 programs designed to provide for and to protect our natural resources. In 

 conformance with the environmental contaminants emphasis of the workshop, this 

 overview will be slanted toward FWS activities to preserve sensitive and 

 critical habitats and to protect these resources from oil and hazardous sub- 

 stances. 



NATURAL RESOURCES PRIORITIES 



It is important to recognize the breadth of the FWS involvement in this 

 pollution response program. As a matter of fact, this conference is unique 

 in the breadth of FWS representation. There are people here from Wildlife 

 Refuges, Animal Damage Control, Law Enforcement, Ecological Services, Biologi- 

 cal Services, Research, Endangered Species, and, of course, Environmental 

 Contaminants. The oil and hazardous substances spill response effort is one 

 of those rare programs that requires the combined contributions of many people 

 from many different disciplines and areas to make it work. In my opinion, 

 our system is working, and it is working well. Our effectiveness is improved 

 by having broad involvement. We all are working toward common objectives and 

 dealing with the same resources, yet we are applying different skills and 

 different backgrounds to solve the problems. 



The central theme of my remarks is the FWS's effort to protect high 

 priority resources within its broad geographical area. These priorities in- 

 clude our specific statutory authorities at the Federal level for protecting 

 migratory birds, endangered species, marine mammals, and anadromous fisheries 

 as well as managing the lands in the refuge system. In the future, the 

 quantity of Federal lands could increase by a great deal. I am referring to 

 Alaska and the conservation of its natural resources, of course, which I will 

 discuss later. 



There are many other priorities within the FWS, but there are certain 

 species and their habitats where our role is most critical. The FWS as a 

 whole has been trying for several years to develop its Program Management 

 Documents so that we can indicate more clearly where we are going in our 

 various program efforts. For Habitat Preservation, I recently revitalized 



