Frequently Asked Questions

The National Wildlife Heath Center (NWHC) is located at 6006 Schroeder Road in southwest Madison, Wisconsin. It sits on a 24-acre tract of Federal property which, along with a vacant building, were acquired in 1978 to consolidate wildlife health expertise into a single program and provide a permanent facility for the NWHC.

The NWHC was established in 1975 in Madison as the first biomedical laboratory dedicated to assessing the impact of disease on wildlife and identifying the role of various pathogens in contributing to wildlife losses. It remains today as the only national center devoted to wildlife disease detection, control, and prevention in the United States.

Designated as a mission essential facility, NWHC functions to advance wildlife health science for the benefit of animals, humans, and the environment. However, a growing challenge to performing its mission is the age and space limitations associated with the present NWHC. The extensive renovations that would be needed to bring the existing facility up to contemporary standards are cost prohibitive.

Starting in 2008, U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted multiple studies of the NWHC which found a 40+ year-old facility with crowded and aged laboratories and administrative areas, use of older, primary containment biological safety cabinets, aging infrastructure, old and inefficient incubators, autoclaves needing replacement, deteriorating casework surfaces, cracking walls, doors, window seals and window frames, lack of consolidated freezer space, use of contained animal rooms for general storage, among many other deficiencies. In follow-up studies conducted in 2016 and 2020, many of the same conditions remained.

Even with proactive efforts to repair equipment, systems, and facilities, the efforts and expenditures to date have provided only short-term relief, focusing only on those necessary to its operation. Repairs have proven costly while resulting in only modest and short-term improvements to the buildings, systems, and infrastructure which support NWHC operation.

It has been the findings of various studies that the extensive amount of renovation needed to bring the NWHC up to contemporary standards and practices would be cost prohibitive and that the mission and function of the facility, along with the interests of the USGS, which oversees the NWHC, would be best served with a complete replacement of the NWHC.

Biohazard containment to prevent the escape of harmful pathogens into the environment is critical for NWHC operation. The existing NWHC has not had any biocontainment breaches, and the proposed NWHC will include modern equipment, systems, and procedures to better protect the health and safety of staff, visitors, and the public. In addition, the new NWHC will address containment within individual laboratories to prevent contamination of assay systems, reagents, and other materials as well as cross-contamination between investigations and protection of staff from exposure to biological and chemical agents capable of inducing disease in humans.

The NWHC has operated successfully at its current location for over 40 years. There is no record of any emergency police or fire department response to an incident at the facility.

The NWHC currently employs approximately 120 scientists, researchers, administrators, and support personnel with most staff residing in the Madison/Dane County area. NWHC employees have been contributing to the social and economic fabric of the surrounding area for over 40 years; developing a new NWHC outside of Madison and Dane County would deprive the area of such benefits.

The Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the proposed new facility for the NWHC in Madison, Wisconsin, was published on November 22, 2024. The 30-day waiting period, which began after the publication of the notice of availability in the Federal Register, concluded on December 23, 2024. The next step in the process is the issuance of the Record of Decision (ROD), which will announce the USGS's decision on the proposed action. The ROD is anticipated to be issued in early 2025.

Although construction of the new NWHC is dependent upon completion of the NEPA process and Congressional appropriations, ground-breaking for the new NWHC facility is tentatively scheduled for 2025.

As a mission-essential facility, the NWHC must remain operational throughout construction of the new facility. However, once the new facility is operational, the existing Main Building and Tight Isolation Building would be demolished.

USGS officials have contacted key federal, state, county and city officials, Native American tribes, regulatory agencies, and others to inform them of plans for a new NWHC and the EIS process. In addition, coinciding with publication of the NOI in the Federal Register, additional project-related information will be made available to elected and appointed officials, stakeholders, the media, and the public.

The NEPA process provides for a 45-day public comment period on the Draft EIS before the preparation of the Final EIS. During the public comment period, the USGS is formally seeking input from agencies, organizations, stakeholders, and the public on findings of the Draft EIS. Information on upcoming public meetings and ways to provide comments is provided on this website.

USGS is committed to ensuring that the NWHC planning and environmental impact study process is transparent and benefits from the input and involvement of stakeholders, elected officials, and the public. To do so, USGS is undertaking ongoing outreach activities to introduce the proposed project to the public, frame the public information process, and articulate how public input will be integrated into the planning and decision-making process. USGS seeks to create an atmosphere of openness that builds trust among the various interest groups. Public interest, input, and trust is vital to the project's overall success and USGS is committed to providing public involvement opportunities throughout the environmental impact study process.

The best source of information about the status and progress in planning for the new NWHC including technical reports, announcements, upcoming meetings, etc., is the NWHC project website. Questions and comments concerning the proposed project and plans for the DEIS can also be submitted via the project website or by contacting: