Monday, January 20, 2014

The United States Fish and Wildlife Services (FWS)



     Welcome back! Long time, no see! I hope you all had a great holiday season and a happy New Year! Now, its time to get back to business. During my winter break, I got to drive around making errands for my parents (I got my driver's license on December 6th!), and while I was driving I passed by a "Fish and Wildlife Service" truck. My first instinct was "Are they going to pull me over?", but once I realized I was driving the speed limit and that California Highway Patrol only pulls you over, I then thought to myself: What does the "Fish and Wildlife Service" even do?; do they only protect wildlife? As a result, I searched the Web and found out that the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is a federal government agency that works within the United States Department of the Interior (the parent agency) dedicated to the management of fish, wildlife, and natural habitats. It was formed on June 30th, 1940, and currently is headquartered in Washington D.C. with a total of 9,000 employees. The responsibilities that this agency is in charge is to enforce federal wildlife laws, protect endangered species, conserve/restore wildlife habitats, help foreign governments with their conservation efforts and etc.


     When I saw a picture of a federal agent, I clicked on it and it led me to some intriguing information. I learned that special agents with the FWS target criminal activities, such as wildlife trafficking and habitual destruction. Another cool job within this agency is being a Wildlife Inspector, where you are stationed at border crossings/ocean ports, so that you can stop illegal shipments and intercept smuggled wildlife. This job is quite interesting to me since I think that we, as a nation, should preserve our natural habitats and its beautiful species. I believed that we have been quite cruel to this world, and that we should try our best to help it not deteriorate more than it has to. What do you think about how we treat the Earth?