Much of the wildlife conservation that occurs in the United States is due to state fish and wildlife agencies. Up until recently, land and wildlife conservation was largely funded by fees and taxes associated with hunting and fishing and was directed, as would thus be expected, towards game species management and protection. This left the other 90 percent of America’s non-game wildlife at risk for local extirpation, and quite possibly extinction. In 2000, Congress created the State Wildlife Grants Program with the hopes of rectifying this dire situation. The program allocates federal funding for wildlife conservation to each and every state that has developed a State Wildlife Action plan with the goal of preventing wildlife from becoming endangered in a cost-effective manner.
State Wildlife Action Plans (WAP)
The State Wildlife Grants Program put the responsibility of creating a statewide wildlife action plan or “comprehensive wildlife conservation strategy” on each individual state and territory. The purpose of these plans is to identify species and habitats of greatest conservation need while developing directed strategies geared toward conserving all wildlife species and distinct natural areas for decades to come. State Wildlife Action Plans put a priority on preventing species from being listed by the Endangered Species Act through effective conservation measures in order to save taxpayer dollars from the costly impacts of listing a species. Ultimately, this proactive approach allows federal and state wildlife agencies to identify specific conservation concerns while protecting at risk wildlife and habitats before they become considerably more costly to do so.
Strategic Habitat Conservation (SHC)
The implementation of State Wildlife Action Plans occurs through a guided, step-by-step process known as “strategic habitat conservation.” The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes SHC as, “A framework for setting and achieving conservation objectives at multiple scales based on the best available information, data, and ecological models.” This process aims to determine the most efficient manner through which stable populations of all species within a state can be achieved (the conservation of populations) and maintained (the conservation of the ecological functions that sustain them) by way of prioritizing habitat/land conservation. The implementation of SHC occurs through the use of four elements that form an “adaptive management loop:”
Biological Planning
a. Identify a priority species (i.e., species of greatest conservation need)
b. Formulate population objectives
c. Assess the current state of the populations
Conservation Design
d. Designate priority conservation areas/habitats
e. Formulate habitat objectives and design
Deliver of Conservation Actions
f. Implement the comprehensive wildlife conservation strategy/wildlife action plan
Monitoring and Research
g. Continued monitoring of populations to determine long-term success
h. Adjust the wildlife action plan as necessary (adaptive management)
Wild South’s Work with Wildlife Action Plans
Wild South assists state wildlife organizations and agencies, such as the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, with the biological planning process and the research and monitoring activities concerning species of greatest conservation need in order to forward the scientific knowledge of species conservation in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. For example, we work to monitor known populations of state “Species of Concern” such as hellbenders, Allegheny woodrats and cerulean warblers and organize field research expeditions attempting to locate new populations of green salamanders (another North Carolina state “Species of Concern”). Overall, our organization’s goal is to protect and restore the diversity of species and habitats in the region.
Below you can find a list of links to each state’s wildlife action plan:
Wildlife Protection
