Dealing With Growth

Endangered species

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is creating a new region for California and Nevada, splitting those states from the rest of the Pacific region headquartered in Portland.

The new California/Nevada region, with headquarters in Sacramento, Calif., will administer an area experiencing explosive growth, increasing pressure on endangered species and scarce water resources.

California alone is projected to grow by more than 58 percent by the year 2020, the agency said.

The Fish and Wildlife Service currently has regional offices in Portland; Anchorage, Alaska; Albuquerque, N.M.; Lakewood, Colo.; Minneapolis; Atlanta; and Hadley, Mass. The last time the agency created a new region was in 1971, when the Rocky Mountain region was established.