OLE Work

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Our Employees

Investigations: Approximately 220 special agents nationwide. Plain clothes, armed, enforcement authority throughout the United States.

Inspections: Approximately 130 wildlife inspectors nationwide. Uniformed, not armed, enforcement authority at ports of entry into the United States, airports, seaports, border ports.

National Eagle and Wildlife Property Repository: 5 repository specialists, 1 supervisory repository specialist. Forensic Support: National wildlife forensic lab in Ashland, OR 2

What We Do in the Mountain Prairie Region

• Investigations: • From 1/2009 to 1/2014 Region 6 special agents had 1,256 open

investigations. Hours per investigation range from a handful to thousands.

• Species involved include eagles, grizzlies, wolves, ferrets, Utah prairie dogs, terns and plovers, migratory birds, big game, rhinos, tigers, elephants, parrots, and other foreign species…

• Unlawful commercialization, industrial take, and T&E take are all high priority investigations for OLE. Many joint state/fed and tribe/fed cases.

• Special agents also completed non-investigative work, including providing Tribal wildlife officer training and grizzly incident outreach to guides and outfitters. 3

What We Do (continued) • Inspections:

• OLE’s wildlife inspection program serves 2 main purposes; facilitate the legal import and export of wildlife and wildlife products, and interdict illegal imports or exports of wildlife.

• Wildlife inspectors are stationed in 2 North Dakota border ports, one Montana border port, and Denver International Airport.

• From 1/2009 to 1/2014 Region 6 wildlife inspectors conducted many thousands of inspections, which produced 1,038 cases.

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What We Do (continued) • National Eagle Repository:

• 1/2009 – 1/2014 the NER received approximately 12,000 eagles, and filled approximately 16,000 Tribal member’s orders.

• A national Consultation was conducted to better align NER distribution processes with Tribal needs.

• The NER has supported eagle research projects through sampling of feathers and tissue.

National Wildlife Property Repository: • Conducts roughly 50 tours per year, with dozens of trafficking tours and

interviews for U.S. and foreign media outlets, and the Ivory Crush. • Houses over 1.5 million pieces in inventory, and supports OLE operations

and endangered species education programs. • Salary, facility, and operations are paid entirely from fines generated by

OLE Lacey Act and ESA cases.

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Commercialization Cases

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