Wildlife Services Directive 4.205 Page 4

5. REFERENCES

WS Directive 2.301, Migratory Bird Damage Management (05/05/06)

WS Directive 2.310, Endangered and Threatened Species (07/28/03)

WS Directive 2.401, Pesticide Use (12/8/09).

WS Directive 2.415, M-44 Use and Restrictions (02/17/10).

WS Directive 2.420 Livestock Protection Collars (02/17/04).

WS Directive 2.435, Explosives Use and Safety (07/03/09).

WS Directive 2.615, Firearms Use and Safety (11/24/09)

WS Explosives Safety Manual, WS Operational Support Staff, Riverdale, MD.

WS Information and Data Management Handbook.
http://inside.aphis.usda.gov/ws/downloads/WS-IDMH_Revision_Four_FinalDraft.pdf

FIFRA. 7 U.S.C. 136 et seq., as amended.

40 CFR Part 153.75. Toxic or Adverse Effect Incident Reports (a)(1)(i) through (iii).

Deputy Administrator



United States Department of Agriculture
Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service

Wildlife Services Directive

4.205
September 30, 2015

_ DATA AND ACTIVITY REPORTING

1. PURPOSE

To ensure adequate documentation of Wildlife Services (WS) program activities.

2. REPLACEMENT HIGHLIGHTS

This directive revises WS Directive 4.205 dated 10/29/08.

3. POLICY

WS personnel are responsible for documenting work activities conducted within their assigned
areas in accordance with these policy guidelines. Work activities include direct management
assistance and technical assistance.

a. Bi-annual Reports. State Directors will provide to their Regional Office a bi-annual
Report covering the preceding 6 month’s notable WS activities within their area of
responsibility. Both Regions will follow the same standardized report format that is
approved by the Deputy Administrator’s office. Reports are due half way through the
fiscal year (April 15) and at the end of the current fiscal year (NLT October 15).

b. Weekly Report to the President. The Weekly Report to the President is required by
USDA and serves to inform Agency and Departmental, and ultimately White House
leadership about activities that relate to administration priorities. Regional Directors,
NWRC Director and Project Leaders, State Directors and National Coordinators are
directed to provide the Deputy Administrator with timely narratives about any activity
having national significance. This could include information about collaboration with
other agencies or departments, public outreach activities, high profile meetings and
international collaborations. The information should be forward-looking as much as
possible, Narratives should include Date, Location, Name and Type of Event, and Source
of the Information. State Directors submitting narratives should submit these reports to
the Operational Support Staff (OSS) and provide a copy to their respective Regional
Office.



Wildlife Services Directive 4.205 Page 2

c. Informational Notebook. OSS will develop the Wildlife Services Managing Wildlife
Damage Informational Notebook which will consist of informational brochures for each
state and for the major operational and research program activity areas. The
Informational Notebook will be produced every other year in cooperation with APHIS'
Legislative and Public Affairs unit, and will be posted on Wildlife Services’ website.

d. MIS Reporting. All WS personnel are accountable for documenting field activities and
technical assistance work they conduct while on official duty. The Management
Information System (MIS) is the national reporting system for WS operational field and
technical assistance activities.

As part of reporting and documentation procedure, processing of an appropriate Work
Initiation Document (WID, otherwise known as WS Form 12 Series) prior to beginning
work on a property is required. This process must include completing all appropriate
fields in the document and obtaining Cooperator and Wildlife Services Program
signatures with date(s). A hard copy of this document must be filed with other record
materials related to the specific Cooperator for which work is to be performed. The life
cycle of the WID is five years and must be renewed within five years of the date signed.
The WS IDMH and MIS User Manual provide additional information about the initiation,
completion and renewal of the WID.

Employees are expected to accurately and completely report all wildlife damage
management activities including: animals taken (species, number,
intentional/unintentional, etc.), methods employed, resources protected and lost, and all
other pertinent data prescribed on MIS data entry forms and formats in order to
substantiate use of the WS Decision Model. Employees are expected to record
recommendations made to the program recipient and to actively inquire and report
methods that are already being employed by the program recipient, to ensure that the
range of methods recommended and used pursuant to the integrated wildlife damage
management approach are documented in the MIS.

Resource values should be determined as accurately as possible through consultation with
the resource owner and the employee's supervisor. State Directors may substitute State-
derived values for national automated values at their discretion.

WS employees, or non-federal cooperative employees and volunteers supervised by WS
personnel are the only individuals who should have access to the MIS and whose wildlife
damage management activities should be entered into MIS. Non-WS personnel
(individuals or entities not described above) will not be granted access to the MIS.
Information and data collected by non-WS personnel will not be entered into the MIS
system, unless pre-approved in writing by the Deputy Administrator or his/her designee.



Wildlife Services Directive 4.205 Page 3

e. Critical issues or potential problems identified by WS personnel will be reported
immediately to their supervisor for further action as appropriate. This would include
situations, occurrences, and media events which may:

1. Significantly affect WS, the Agency, or the Department (positively or negatively),

2. Result in publicity, substantial/national media and public inquiries, or
Congressional inquiries, or

3. Affect WS’ relationship with other agencies, States, or cooperators.

4. IMPLEMENTATION:
WS guidance for maintaining accurate MIS data:

a. Employee responsibilities: To ensure that information gathered in the field is accurately
input into the MIS, employees must document direct control and technical assistance
wildlife damage management activities that occur in the field prior to leaving the
property where the activity occurred. When immediate input into MIS is not practical,
field notes must be collected on paper or digitally using electronic forms and shall be
entered into MIS no more than 2 weeks after the field notes were collected. Employees
unable to access MIS biweekly must discuss alternate solutions with their supervisor.
Employees must review the itinerary report in MIS to verify the accuracy of their MIS
data entries with their field notes every 30 days. Employees must retain field notes until
the annual program data reports (PDR) for that year have been published so that
employees can cross reference flagged MIS records against their field notes.

b. Supervisor responsibilities: Supervisors must review employee work tasks quarterly for
accuracy and to monitor: 1) compliance with rules and regulations for use of pesticides
and other special tools and methods and 2) adherence to permits, regulations, laws and
policies pertaining to wildlife species affected by WS actions. Supervisors must also
validate a random sample of at least 4 weeks of MIS data annually for each employee, by
comparing the data entered into MIS to the written or electronic field notes maintained by
the employee. After completing this comparison, supervisors will complete a WS Form
82, and verify accuracy of records examined by checking Item 14 on the form.

c. State Director responsibilities: State Directors are responsible for reviewing MIS
quarterly, and ensuring that discrepancies are corrected within 30 days following the end
of each quarter. State Directors must complete final review of fiscal year MIS data by
November 30. WS Regional Directors will notify the WS Chief Information Officer in
writing that all States have validated the accuracy of their quarterly and annual fiscal year
data.