"The Agency That Wrestles With Wayward Birds and Vanishing Coastlines"

"More questions than answers persist in early efforts to bring climate change into all decisions at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the federal agency that manages the nation's wildlife refuges and many of its protected species.

As it completes a climate strategy proposed last fall, many of the service's some 9,000 employees are already grappling with the day-to-day implications of a warming climate. That starts at the top.

During FWS Director Sam Hamilton's visit to a Mississippi Delta refuge situated hundreds of miles from the Gulf Coast, local staff asked him what should be done about the roseate spoonbills. Normally coastal birds, they were appearing at the refuge for the first time in reported history."

Jessica Leber reports for ClimateWire January 14, 2010.