National Conservation Training Center

10/10/2026

Fun Facts about our agency.

100 Things You Didn't Know About the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service!

#1 of 100: The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service traces it origins back to February 9, 1871 with the establishment of the U.S. Commission of Fish and Fisheries--later renamed the Bureau of Fisheries. This predecessor bureau provided the "Fish" in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service name.

An ongoing history series on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service as part of our nation's 250th anniversary.

10/09/2026

Indigenous Connections Broadcast, October 21st at 3pm ET – Building Dreams

Join us as we hear from Master Carver, Darrell Charles Jr. and fellow carvers about the first canoe carving to take place at Lake Crescent in Olympic National Park in over 100 years!

Master Carver, Darrell Charles Jr., member of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, had a dream as a young person to one day build a canoe on the shore of Cresent Lake and then paddle his canoe in its waters.

Joining him is Carver Randy Eastman Jr., member of the Quileute Tribe. For Randy the shores of Lake Crescent have always held significant value not only for his Tribe but also for his family, who celebrated many ceremonies there, most of which involved canoes. Darrell and fellow carvers, each with their unique cultural backgrounds, brought this dream to fruition in July 2026.

Viewers will learn how canoes are carved, used, and their cultural importance through the voices of the practitioners themselves.

Link to join in the comments.

Photo credit: Olympic National Park

10/05/2026

Curious how the idea of ecology took shape and how it changed the way we see our place in nature? Join the 250 Years of America’s Best Nature Writing Book Club in October to read "Nature’s Economy" by Donald Worster.
Worster traces the field’s roots through portraits of Carl Linnaeus, Gilbert White, Charles Darwin, Henry David Thoreau, Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold and other figures who shaped our understanding of natural world and our place in it. It’s a vivid history of ecological ideas and a reminder that conservation is part of America’s story.

Photo credit: Gary Peeples/USFWS

09/21/2026

Tune is this week to watch the 2026 Federal Duck Stamp Contest 🦆

09/15/2026

NCTC’s Newest Conservation Hero—Ryan Orndorff, Defender of Wildlife (1976-2025)

On September 2, 2026, the National Conservation Training Center added a new conservation hero to its walls. A plaque was dedicated to Ryan Orndorff whose career focused on collaborative and proactive approaches to wildlife conservation that supported military readiness. The plaque dedication ceremony was attended by Orndorff’s family and colleagues from U.S. Department of War and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. As part of the dedication, FWS biologist James Kwon placed a ceremonial lei on the plaque to honor Orndorff’s conservation work. NCTC has 181 conservation heroes in its conservation hall of fame remembering those who have been critical for conserving our nation’s resources, including historic figures such as Aldo Leopold and Theodore Roosevelt. Ryan will join their ranks as the first military lands conservation professional to have ever been recognized as a US conservation hero through this program.

Orndorff was highly influential, shaping approaches to military conservation and natural resources management. He created the Recovery and Sustainment Partnership Initiative, a mission sustainment and conservation partnership between the Department of War and the U.S. Department of the Interior, contributing to the recovery and delisting of the Okaloosa darter and five species on San Clemente Island after decades under Endangered Species Act protection; strengthened partnerships with federal, state, and private organizations to support military readiness through land and resource conservation; advanced the Avian Knowledge Network; and helped develop the Gopher Tortoise Conservation and Crediting Strategy, protecting a keystone species and thus enabling critical military training to proceed. Orndorff was famous for always asking, “how can we work collaboratively and proactively to help benefit conservation and the military mission?”

Image 1: Dedication Ceremony for Ryan Orndorff Conservation Hero Plaque.
Image 2: Ryan Orndorff Conservation Hero Plaque.

09/14/2026

The NCTC Conservation Lecture Series Presents:
“Evening Grand Rounds: The Health of a Person, a Place, and a Planet” with Chris Lemon, Director of Clinical Program Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health and Chris Marshall, Senior Administrative Manager Johns Hopkins Institute for Planetary Health
Thursday September 24, 2026, at 7:00 PM
National Conservation Training Center
Byrd Auditorium
698 Conservation Way Shepherdstown, WV

This event is free and open to the public. To register, please email:
[email protected]
Include the program date, the names of adults attending, and any questions.

Doors open at 6:30 PM.
Program begins at 7:00 PM.

This lecture will be recorded and available online October 1 at 2:00 pm ET
at https://www.youtube.com//streams

09/09/2026

Remembering Richard Guadagno​
September 26, 1962 – September 11, 2001

​Last week, museum staff from the USFWS Museum and Archives got to work with the staff from the Interior Museum to install an exhibit honoring Richard Guadagno (September 26,1962 – September 11, 2001) at the Stewart Udall Main Interior Building, Washington, D.C. ​

Richard Guadagno was the Refuge Manager at Humboldt Bay National Wildlife Refuge in California. He was killed on September 11, 2001, when Flight 93 crashed near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. Since his Federal law enforcement badge and credentials were found near the plane’s cockpit, it is believed that he took an active role in confronting the terrorists. ​​

The exhibit will be on display at Interior's C Street entrance from September 8-11 after which it will move to the Interior Museum until the end of the year. Guests to the National Conservation Training Center may view displays honoring Rich at the Front Entry Building near the USFWS Museum.

09/01/2026

Did you know bison once roamed the valleys of West Virginia? 🦬
Imagine an abundant, Eastern landscape populated by elk, bison, wolves, and cougars not so long ago.

Join the USFWS Conservation Library America’s Wild Read in reading the Beasts of the East : the Fall and Rise of America’s Eastern Wilderness by Andrew Moore. We’ll explore the fascinating efforts taking place across the eastern U.S. to meet the challenge of rewilding once prevalent species. Link to register is in the comment section.

09/01/2026

Remembering Wendell Berry who passed August 31, 2026.

The National Conservation Training Center had the honor of hosting Wendell Berry in June 1999 at the Orion Society's "Fire and Grit" literary conference. Berry provided many sage remarks at that event including this particularly appropriate one.

"No individual life is an end in itself, one can live fully by participating fully in the succession of the generations, in death as well as in life. Some would say, and I am one of them, that we can live fully only by making ourselves answerable to the claims of eternity as to those in time."

Photo: Wendell Berry in 2011. Photo by David Marshall.

08/31/2026

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is mourning federal wildlife officer David Taylor, 38 of Scio, Oregon, who is believed to have died while helping evacuate residents threatened by the Railroad South Fire.

Officer Taylor was going door to door alongside local emergency crews helping families get to safety. His last contact with dispatch came while he was helping a family evacuate their home. Evidence recovered from a structure where he was working to help a resident escape indicates that he died during the evacuation effort. Formal identification remains pending with the medical examiner.

Everything we know about David's actions reflects extraordinary courage, selflessness and devotion to duty.
Our hearts are with his family, friends, fellow officers and all who served alongside him. We will never forget his service.