US Fish & Wildlife Service
The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has as its mission: “Working with others, to conserve, protect and restore fish, wildlife, and plants and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.”

Although the City of Chicago is highly urbanized, the region as a whole still has numerous preserves and parks that contain good examples of most plant communities and wildlife species found here prior to European settlement.  The USFWS office located in Barrington was established by Congressional appropriation in 1991, as the “Chicago Metro Wetlands Office.”

As the name implies, the original role was to increase conservation of wetlands habitats being impacted by increasing urbanization.  Since then, the agency has played an expanding and instrumental role in the conservation of the unique aquatic and terrestrial habitats in northeastern Illinois.  Over time the office name changed to reflect the expanded role and to be consistent with other field station naming within the agency.

Today, the CHICAGO ILLINOIS FIELD OFFICE goals are
1) To preserve, protect, enhance, and restore terrestrial and aquatic habitats for Service trust resources, and 2) To promote environmental education in the Chicago metropolitan area and throughout Illinois. The “trust” resources are primarily endangered and threatened species and migratory birds.

Part of the Ecological Services Division within USFWS, the office currently employs ten biologists, two administrative support staff, two-three interns, and one law enforcement agent co-located in the Barrington office. The biologists are responsible for programs that include review of federal projects, education and outreach, environmental contaminants, endangered and threatened species, private lands, and a myriad of other activities that fall outside of these traditional USFWS program areas.

Some of these non-traditional activities include involvement with partnerships such as FREP and Chicago Wilderness. These partnerships enable U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to better fulfill its mission and goals, while leveraging resources with those of the local community and sister agencies.