FWS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) | US Fish & Wildlife Service – US Fish and Wildlife Service

Important Notice

The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) offices in the bureaus/offices of the Department of the Interior are continuing to process FOIA requests to the best of their ability during the COVID-19 pandemic.

To keep employees healthy and safe, the Department is maximizing telework flexibility and employing social distancing protocols. As a result of these precautions, most employees are working remotely and unable to collect hard copy records located in government facilities at this time. If your request is for hard copy records, the response to your request will very likely be delayed.

Employees may not receive FOIA requests that are sent by U.S. mail, overnight mail services, or facsimile in a timely manner. We recommend, therefore, that requesters submit requests through the government-wide portal athttps://www.foia.gov.

You should know that a request to the Service or a Service component (for example, a request seeking documents from a regional or field office) will be presumed to seek only records from that region or component. A request will not be forwarded to another bureau unless it is clear on the face of your request that it was misdirected. For example, if you address your request to an appropriate FOIA contact in the National Park Service and ask for records concerning a specific park, but your request is delivered to the Fish and Wildlife Service, your request was clearly misdirected. In such a case, the Service FOIA office will route the request to a FOIA contact in the proper bureau. If you need assistance determining where to send a request, you may seek assistance from the bureau's designated FOIA contact or FOIA Requester Center (seehttps://www.doi.gov/foia/foiacenters).

If you are seeking records located at a specific Region or component of the Service (see Regional Map below), specify in your request which Region or component you seek records from. The request will be assigned to the appropriate FOIA Coordinator (See below).

If you seek records from an unspecified component of the Service or you are unsure which component of the Service is likely to have the records you seek, indicate such in your request. The FOIA Officer or staff member will forward it to the Service component(s) that he or she believes has or are likely to have responsive records.

Requests may be submitted electronically athttps://www.foiaonline.gov/foiaonline/action/public/home, or by mail to 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: IRTM, Falls Church, VA 22041.

How to submit a FOIA request on FOIA Online

Note: We no longer accept request via email. The preceding is the only accepted form of submission.

You can reach us by email fwhq_foia@fws.gov, or by mail 5275 Leesburg Pike, MS: IRTM, Falls Church, VA 22041. For general FOIA questions contact FWS FOIA Officer, Cathy Willis at (720) 425-5173. For new request issues or status update contact FWS West Coast Lead/Intake Coordinator, Stacey Cummins, at (303) 236-4473.

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FWS Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) | US Fish & Wildlife Service - US Fish and Wildlife Service