Conservation dollars are here. Now the challenge is developing rules, developing relationships and partners, and getting work down on the ground with some pretty aggressive timelines for implementation.
The federal funding environment for natural resource management has changed drastically over the last several years reaching a level that has been described as “generational."
The Administration has released its proposed Federal budget for Fiscal Year 2024. The budget includes $80 million for the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program a 33% increase over the budget enacted for the current year.
The Western Partnership Forum did a great job of sharing some of those insights and ideas in real time through social media postings and short videos on both Instagram and Facebook. We have also distilled what the participants had to say in a report now available on our website.
A group of 80 plus landowners and collaborative partners gathered for the Western Lands Partnership Forum in early January in Las Vegas, Nevada. Partnerscapes and staff from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife program worked together to plan and deliver a unique forum.
Federal funding for conservation, specifically under the headings of ecosystem restoration and climate, has truly reached “once-in-a-lifetime” levels with passage of huge pieces of funding legislation such as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) in the 117th Congress.
In July of this year a private lands staff forum organized by members of the North American Bird Conservation Initiative (NABCI) and other partners was held in Kansas City, Missouri. Almost 150 individuals, including employees of public and private conservation organizations and landowners, attended the gathering.
Private Lands Partners Day 2022 was held October 4-6 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, a rapidly growing part of the country that is important for agriculture and is rich in natural resources. Almost 150 people were registered from 29 states and Puerto Rico.
Partnerscapes is hosting a January 2023 workshop for U.S. Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) Partners for Fish and Wildlife biologists as well as their organizational and landowner partners in western states to share relationship and partnership building skills that are foundational to voluntary programs, projects, and partnerships implemented by landowners, agencies, and organizations around the West and around the country.
Fifteen years ago, The Blackfoot Challenge and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program competed for and won an Innovations in American Government grant from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard to transfer collaborative conservation lessons learned delivering years of locally-led collaborative conservation in western Montana to the rest of the country.
The need for practitioners in multiple specialties from fish and wildlife to watershed management and everything in between is already large, is increasing every day--and includes a need for expertise in the "art" of conservation.
An event developed specifically for practitioners who work directly with private landowners was held July 12-13 in Kansas City, Missouri.
