9535

• UCREFRP Catalog Number: 9535
• Author: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
• Title: Fish & Wildlife News.
• USFW Year: 2003.
• USFW - Doc Type: \
• Copyright Material: NO

States ueveloping Comprehensive
Wildlife Conservation Plans
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
is offering to help states develop
Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Plans,
which the states must complete by October
2005 if they want to remain eligible for
millions of dollars in aid under the State
Wildlife Grant program.
In the last three years, Congress has
appropriated $220 million to help fund state,
territorial and tribal efforts to conserve
wildlife and the habitat it needs. But as
a condition for allocating the money,
Congress required states and territories
to complete a comprehensive strategy
outlining measures to help "species of
greatest conservation need."
All 50 states and six territories have
committed to developing a Comprehensive
Wildlife Conservation Plan, and many states
have begun working on them. Tribes are not
required to complete plans.
Fish and Wildlife Service Director Steve
Williams said Congress has provided
"an historic opportunity to the state fish
and wildlife agencies and their partners
to design and implement a cohesive and
comprehensive vision for the conservation
of our nation's wildlife."
The Director wants the Service to be
one of those partners.
The Service, in a joint effort with the
international Association of Fish and
Wildlife Agencies and several national
conservation groups, is offering to provide
information, expert help and guidance to
each state.
"We need to be there to help," said Kris E
LaMontagne, Chief of the Division of
Federal Assistance for the Service.
Exactly what that help will entail will vary
region-to-region and state-to- state.
For now, Service officials say, much of
the assistance will be handled at the
regional level.
The Service asked each region to set up
two teams: A Regional Plan Development
Assistance Team will be made up of
representatives for the Service, the states
and other partners. The DATs will coordinate
the flow of information and assistance from
the Service to each state. This team will
gather information internally, within the
variety of Service programs in each state
and region-from refuges and endangered
species to fisheries. That information
would then be funneled through the DATs
to each state, to be used in the development
of state plans.
LaMontagne said the Service wants to act
as a facilitator, collaborator and partner.
"Our whole approach is `leading from behind,'
so the states are doing the plans," he said.
So far, he said, the reaction has been
positive-both in the Service and among
state officials. Last spring, the Service
conducted six regional workshops for
state officials and members of conservation
groups and other partners. The workshops
were intended to disseminate information
about the plans and foster cooperation
among the states and the non-governmental
organizations.
"We have seen a lot of energy and
enthusiasm in the states and in the
NGOs," he said.
In late 2001, President Bush signed into law
the Department of the Interior and Related
Agencies Appropriation Act of 2002, which
included $80 million for wildlife conservation
grants to states and territories and $5 million
to tribes. The 2003 Interior Appropriation
Bill set aside another $65 million, and the
new 2004 Interior appropriation bill
provides $70 million.
The money is used for wildlife management
plans, monitoring, and habitat improvements.
Colorado Division of Wildlife is improving
conditions for mountain plovers in that
state and the Arkansas Game and Fish
Commission will compare the population
dynamics of four disjunct populations of
Swainson's Warblers in response to habitat
manipulation in Arkansas.
Jim Nickles, Public Affairs,
Sacramento, CA
A New Look at
FWS Partnerships
What do Safari Club International, the
National Cattlemen's Beef Association,
and the National Hispanic Environmental
Council have in common? All are
conservation partners with the Fish and
Wildlife Service. So are dozens of other
nongovernment and government
organizations that have forged national-level
agreements with the Service-all in the
name of wildlife conservation.
Until now, many of these partnership
agreements have lived in the file drawers
of the Service program that generated the
initial agreement. That has changed. The
new Division of Conservation Partnerships
(DCP) is collecting all national partnership
agreements for the Service's Intranet site
<sii.fws.gov/outreach/MOUlist.htm>.
A few observations about the partnership
agreements now posted on the Intranet:
Many don't list program contacts or have
expiration dates.
Some are very general in nature, providing
a great umbrella for future cooperative
activities but little in the way of specific
commitments.
A number may be inactive because the
program "champion" who pushed the
agreement through the system has gone
on to another assignment.
In addition, there doesn't appear to be
much difference between a Memorandum
Of Understanding and a Memorandum
Of Agreement in terms of actual content.
To continue serving as a clearinghouse for
partnership requests and information, DCP
is requesting help to locate national level
partnership agreements that are not
currently displayed on the Intranet site. To
this end, the division is asking all programs
to take a look at the Intranet site, dust off
their files and provide the division with
copies of agreements signed by the Director
or higher-up that are not already on the site.
By expanding our agency's knowledge of
these agreements, we can help engage or
re-engage constructively with our partners.
Susan Jewell, Biologist, Endangered Species
Program, Arlington, Virginia (on detail
with Division of Conservation Partnerships