The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Conservation Training Center (NCTC) leads the nation with training and education for natural resource managers to meet the goal of conserving fish, wildlife, plants, and their habitats for the benefit of the American public.
NCTC provides training opportunities for the Service, DOI, and other Federal and non-federal partners in conservation policies and regulations, applied landscape conservation, climate science, leadership and management, partnerships and communications, and more.
This facility serves as the physical and virtual “home” of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where the history and heritage of the Service are preserved and shared. NCTC is a walking campus on a 533-acre property. The instructional classrooms, commons, and housing are situated within the rural setting of both forest and grasslands. The architectural design demonstrates the buildings and walkways are blended with the landscape to entice guests to shed their metropolis pressures. Outdoor patios, walkways, and break areas are situated to view the Mid-Atlantic area wildlife throughout the four seasons. Birds, white-tailed deer, foxes, and other critters are frequently seen skittering up nearby trees or moving along a grassland culvert.
NCTC is available as a venue for our conservation partners to host meetings and events. NCTC also manages the USFWS Museum and Archives and USFWS Library, housing the USFWS’ collections of historic artifacts, photos, and documents, as well as periodicals and other reference materials. These are available to support student learning as well as conservation professionals and scholars within and outside the Service.
NCTC is located just 60 miles outside of Washington DC in Shepherdstown, West Virginia. The campus is accessible to Washington Dulles International Airport, Baltimore/Washington International, and Reagan National (DC) Airport.
