U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service honors Las Vegas biologist

As a fisheries biologist for the Nevada Department of Wildlife, Jon Sjoberg may love working with fish but that doesn’t mean he wants them at home.

“I get enough of them out in the field,” says Sjoberg, who has two dogs.

If his success at his job continues, he will find even more fish in the desert.

Sjoberg was named a 2007 National Recovery Champion by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for his work recovering threatened and endangered species in the United States. He is one of 16 recipients nationwide selected for the award by the government agency.

“It is quite an honor,” says Sjoberg, who feels humbled and appreciative to receive the award, which is voted on by his peers. “It is a team effort of everybody who does this.”

An employee of the Nevada Department of Wildlife since 1980, Sjoberg began working with fish hatcheries in Reno before moving to Las Vegas in 1989 to work in the native fish program. He has been the fisheries supervisor for Southern Nevada since 1991. His field includes working toward the recovery of nongame fish that are protected on both a federal and state level.

“We have a responsibility for all wildlife,” Sjoberg says. “Neither us nor the feds individually have the resources to keep things from going extinct or to improve their situations so they are no longer endangered. It is a long, slow process.”

In the recovery process, Sjoberg says he and other field biologists monitor the species on a regular schedule “to get a handle on what is happening.” If the recovery effort needs to be done on private land, Sjoberg uses the Safe Harbor Agreement, which gives landowners assurances “that if they do allow us to do actions, it won’t affect their ability to use their property.” Overall, Sjoberg says, there is a good working relationship with the landowners.

Some of the fish species Sjoberg has worked with include springfish, the Devil’s Hole pupfish and the razorback sucker in the Colorado River.

“The suckers reproduce but don’t get to be adults because they get eaten,” says Sjoberg, who adds the recovery process has included collecting larvae and placing it in the Willow Beach hatchery.

Sjoberg believes the most successful recovery has been the Railroad Valley springfish in Central Nevada. For the recovery, the Nevada Department of Wildlife worked with U.S. Fish and Wildlife and the Duckwater Shoshone tribe to help restore the habitat.

He notes that the species has a good chance of being removed from the endangered species list “in the not so distant future.”

Sjoberg, who majored in wildlife at the University of Nevada, Reno, says he never planned to work with fish specifically, but he is glad he took the opportunity with the state to work in the fish hatcheries.

Fish are “absolutely fascinating animals,” he says.

“Fish in the desert is kind of an anomaly,” Sjoberg says, who adds that the variety of fish species found in Southern Nevada is unique.

“You see the importance of protecting that for a long time,” he says.

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