Transportation Fellow Program

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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is the primary federal agency responsible for the conservation, protection, and enhancement of the nationâ¿¿s fish and wildlife populations and their habitats. The USFWS National Wildlife Refuge System manages 855.6 million acres of lands and waters and includes n 566 national wildlife refuges, 38 wetland management districts, 50 coordination areas, and seven National Monuments. These refuges attract more than 53 million annual visitors seeking a host of transportation services, with which the USFWS requires assistance. The Public Land Transportation Fellow program provides fellowships to outstanding graduates in a transportation-related field to spend 10 months working directly with USFWS staff on key visitor transportation issues. Fellows are placed at a national wildlife refuge, or other USFWS office location and provided field work experience, facing a transportation issue to facilitate a transportation planning or implementation project. The assigned projects help the field stations develop transportation solutions that preserve valuable resources and enhance the visitor experience. The fellows program has three main goals 1. Encourage emerging transportation professionals to pursue their career serving Federal lands; 2. Provide much-needed transportation expertise to USFWS field stations and regions to help them address critical transportation issues; and 3. Support the development, implementation, and evaluation of viable alternative transportation for visitors to USFWS field stations. Through this agreement with Montana State University (MSU), USFWS requests that the Western Transportation Institute (WTI) at MSU assist the USFWS with supporting and mentoring Transportation Fellows for complexes and refuges located within the United States. The period of performance for this award will be March 1, 2018 through December 31, 2019. Authorizing statutes for this program include Fish and Wildlife Coordination Act of 1958, 16 U.S.C.661; Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965, as amended (16 U.S.C. 4601-4 through 11); Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531-1543); Fish and Wildlife Conservation Act (16 U.S.C. 2901-2911; 94 Stat. 1322); The Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 (16 U.S.C. 742a-742j; Stat. 1119), as amended, Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, as amended (16 U.S.C 703-712); The Coastal Barrier Resources Act of 1982 (CBRA) (16 U.S.C. 3501 et seq.); and the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993, as amended 2005 (16 U.S.C. 1721-1726, P.L. 109-154).

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