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Making Natural
Area Programs Work for Wildlife (continued from page 1) to guide and enhance land protection and natural area management. These include: • Natural area program managers should reach out to state wildlife agencies to be involved in the implementation of the state wildlife action plans. Natural area program managers should identify partners such as state and local open space and other natural area programs that can help implement goals, objectives, and associated action items outlined in the state wildlife action plans. • Natural area program managers should request information on wildlife and critical habitats from state wildlife agencies. Natural area program managers should request training from state wildlife agencies to support the use of the plans to guide land conservation planning and project evaluation. State agencies also could provide spatially explicit maps, where available, for land conservation programs to reference in open space protection decision-making. • Open space managers should use wildlife action plans to assist with project selection process. Open space programs could reference wildlife action plans in their project and/or grant evaluation process and provide incentives to applicants by clearly including the plans in their grant evaluation criteria and awarding points to projects that support state wildlife strategies. • Natural area and open space managers could integrate the state wildlife action plans with their planning. Open space and natural area programs that are developing land conservation plans and strategies should refer to their state’s wildlife action plan for information on key species and habitats. • State wildlife managers and natural area and open space managers should identify |
overlapping
priorities and constituencies and work together to protect land. State
open space
and
natural programs and state wildlife agencies should meet to identify
overlapping priorities, both programmatically (i.e., program goals and
objectives) and geographically (i.e., priority areas within the
landscape). Identifying common goals will allow programs to partner—and
potentially pool or leverage funds—on a variety of wildlife and land
conservation activities such as land acquisition and associated
planning. Next Steps for State Programs Given the numerous opportunities for collaboration described above, staff from each state program could benefit significantly by having a forum to discuss current and future program goals and objectives, availability of data and maps, funding sources, program needs, and potential to partner on individual projects, among other topics. Moreover, because each state wildlife action plan and every natural area program and state open space program is unique with respect to size, focus, resources, and challenges, it is essential that this discussion take place at the state level. For more information on the state wildlife action plans For more information on ELI’s roundtable meeting, Making Open Space Dollars Work for Wildlife For more information on ELI’s report, The Nature of Open Space Programs: Linking Land Protection and Biodiversity Conservation 1 Funding from the Doris Duke
Charitable Foundation supported the study and workshop. For a copy of
the |
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From ELI President Leslie
Carothers For nearly 40 years,
the Environmental Law Institute has sought to advance environmental
protection through laws that work for people, places, and the planet. Our
non-partisan approach uses research, publications, and stakeholder
outreach to strengthen environmental laws, policies, and management. ELI’s
Land & Biodiversity Program works to promote the sustainable use of land
through development and support of policies that meet human needs while
protecting the diversity of plants, animals, and natural communities. |
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