Common questions about the NH Wildlife
Action Plan
What is the plan?
New Hampshire's Wildlife Action Plan prioritizes
the state's wildlife and wildlife habitat conservation to safeguard
our wildlife legacy. To qualify for new federal funding, each
state
had to create a plan. The plan has several required elements,
but its focus is on "species in greatest need of
conservation,"
and addressing the "full array of wildlife." The Plan was
submitted to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Sevice on October 1, 2005 and approved in spring of 2006.
Why do we need the plan?
New Hampshire needs the Wildlife Action Plan so that there
will be one collaboratively developed blueprint that everyone can
look to for answers when wildlife and habitat-related decisions
are being made. This will prevent re-work by various agencies,
and
help streamline and guide local communities in their own conservation
planning efforts.
Who's involved?
N.H. Fish and Game coordinated the development of the plan and has thus far been leading its implementation. Major partners such
as conservation organizations, agencies, researchers and many others
have been essential to the plan. To ensure the plan's
effectiveness, we continue to need input and implementation help from across the board -- biologists
and ecologists, local, state and federal governments/agencies, conservation
groups, business leaders, private landowners... and you!
What are the components of the plan?
The plan is big, big, big. To start, we worked to collect
existing information about the state's wildlife and habitat, and
incorporated the data (such as species occurrence records) into
one huge, dynamic database and mapping system (known as a Geographic
Information System or GIS). The plan contains profiles
of N.H. wildlife species; profiles of important habitats; and strategies
for conserving them. Fish and Game also integrated its 5-year "Big
Game Management Plan" into
the overall conservation plan, so that we have a full picture of
wildlife and management
activities in the state. Click
here to see the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service's Eight Required
Elements.
What have we done so far?
One of the most important things we've done is identifying species
at risk: 105 N.H. species of conservation concern or management
interest; 35 threatened or endangered species; and 70 species that
have low or declining populations, and/or are indicative of at-risk
habitats. We completed the GIS database and
mapping (though it continues to be a work in progress), in addition to the species and habitat profiles. We also developed conservation strategies using the data
and public input.
How is the planning process funded?
The comprehensive wildlife conservation planning process was
funded by State Wildlife Grants (SWG), federal funds that go to
states for wildlife and habitat research, monitoring and planning.
Currently, in the plan's implementation phase, we must document a 50% match of non-federal funds or in-kind services.
Generally speaking, what are the intended
outcomes of this planning process for New Hampshire?
The N.H. Fish and Game Comprehensive Planning
Team established five desired outcomes of the Comprehensive
Wildlife Conservation Planning process:
- An informed citizenry that is aware of New
Hampshire's wildlife diversity and its contribution to the environmental,
economic and social fabric of the state and that actively supports
wildlife conservation.
- An informed network of partners actively prepared
to engage in implementing key conservation strategies and actions
that protect the state's wildlife diversity.
- A dynamic and adaptable GIS-based blueprint
of New Hampshire's significant wildlife habitats that support
species in greatest need for conservation and the full array of
wildlife diversity.
- A suite of conservation strategies that considers
biological, social and economic factors and opportunities to conserve
the wildlife species in greatest need of conservation and the
full array of wildlife.
- A dynamic and adaptable GIS-based wildlife
data management system that contains all known wildlife occurrences
and habitat polygons and that can be augmented continually with
new data and queried by ecoregion, conservation land, habitat
type, and species to monitor our progress in conserving wildlife.
Return to
N.H. Wildlife Action Plan page
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