NEAFWA 2018

AUTHORS: Catherine Doyle-Capitman; Daniel J. Decker - Cornell University

ABSTRACT. Natural resource practitioners are increasingly taking a collaborative, landscape-level approach to wildlife and habitat conservation. Despite its potential advantages, this approach faces challenges. Primary among these is ensuring ecosystem-wide goals for conservation, such as those articulated in the Connecticut River Watershed Landscape Conservation Design, can effectively inform local management plans and actions. This necessitates working with local stakeholders. Opportunities for local stakeholders to participate in wildlife-focused landscape conservation planning are usually limited, in part because conservation leaders are uncertain about whether, when, and how these stakeholders might most effectively participate in decision processes. We conducted a multiple-case-study investigation to understand how social data and local stakeholder engagement are currently being used in three collaborative landscape conservation (CLC) initiatives in the U.S., and how participation opportunities impacted the CLC planning process and the utility of associated planning products. Results indicate local stakeholder participation and human dimensions considerations during planning are essential to enhancing the local relevance and utility of CLC planning products and promoting local stakeholders’ support of CLC efforts. Local stakeholders should be engaged at the start of decision-making processes, receive communications throughout these processes, and have the option to participate directly or through a representative. Findings also indicate all potentially impacted stakeholders—not only those focused on conservation—should be involved during CLC planning. Results and recommendations from the study are intended to benefit CLC development teams in their efforts to plan and implement socio-politically feasible, broad-scale conservation efforts.

AUTHORS: Chris Spatz, President Cougar Rewilding Foundation; John Laundré, Western Oregon University

ABSTRACT. An emerging problem regarding wildlife funding is dwindling financial resources to support the state agencies designated to manage wildlife. Having traditionally tied the support of these agencies mainly to hunting related revenues, decreasing numbers of hunters has led to concurrent decreases in funding bases. Most recent data indicate the number of hunters continues to decrease (down to 5% of U.S. population over 16 years old) with even further declines in revenues for state agencies. Non-hunting citizens who watch wildlife (wildlife watchers, 35% of the population) greatly exceed numbers of hunters and spend billions of dollars more on pursuing their activities. However, the revenues generated related to these activities (equipment, trip- related expenses, jobs and wages, federal and state taxes) do not directly fund state wildlife agencies. Thus, many discount and marginalize the immense economic potential wildlife watching revenues represent. Because hunting can no longer provide the primary source for funding state wildlife agencies, and a significant percentage of the wildlife watching public are demanding that these agencies support their use of wildlife, states need to develop ways for wildlife watchers to contribute directly to state wildlife agencies. We propose that state wildlife funding can best be supplemented by what we term wildlife reinvestment: dedicating a small percentage of existing state taxes on wildlife watching revenues back into state wildlife agencies. Wildlife reinvestment does not require new or tax increases. We use New York State as an example of how the reinvestment of a small percentage (15 cents per $100) of the total state spending, providing over $190 million dollars to New York State’s wildlife agency, the Department of Environmental Conservation. Because research has demonstrated that every $1 spent on wildlife generates from $7-$21 in return revenue, wildlife reinvestment will increase state tax revenues.

AUTHORS: Catherine Tredick, Daniel Moscovici, Joseph Russell - Stockton University

ABSTRACT. New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife (NJDFW) manages a system of 122 wildlife management areas (WMAs) covering more than 350,000 acres of the state. These lands were initially established as public hunting and fishing grounds, but have more recently expanded their role to provide a wider range of consumptive (e.g., hunting and fishing) and non-consumptive (e.g., hiking, bird-watching, etc.) recreational opportunities. Given changes in WMA use and users, a comprehensive understanding of who is using these lands and how they are using them is essential for developing appropriate management objectives for these lands. Further, as non-consumptive use on these lands increases, managers must consider potential implications for management, including who to manage these lands for, potential conflicts among users, and funding for management efforts.To better understand current recreational use and users on New Jersey WMAs, we developed a survey to determine who is using these lands and what they are doing there, perceptions of current WMA management practices, and users’ willingness-to-pay. We conducted surveys in-person across an entire calendar year, and used a stratified random sampling design to ensure that survey results would be representative of all WMA users across the entire state. We will present results from this survey, including spatial and temporal patterns of consumptive and non-consumptive users and areas of potential conflict, differences in opinions of current WMA management practices and willingness-to-pay based on whether users currently hold consumptive hunting or fishing licenses, and other considerations for management of New Jersey WMAs going forward.

AUTHORS: Donald Katnik, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries & Wildlife; Lowell Ballard, Timmons Group

ABSTRACT. Like many state fish and wildlife agencies, Maine Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife (MDIFW) has a Citizen Science (CS) program to increase public interest in our diverse wildlife species and to obtain assistance in surveying populations. Previously this was a paper exercise with data submitted on forms that MDIFW biologists had to manually enter into a database. Besides being inefficient and susceptible to transcription error, this methodology limited how quickly we could provide survey results back to the public. Our new web portal allows the public to discover our CS programs (currently “HERON” and “River Bird”), explore the existing survey data, and volunteer to help. Once vetted, registered Citizen Scientists can log in to record their survey data with easy-to-use data collection forms. This makes it seamless for Citizen Scientists to immediately view their data with other submitted observations. The data is stored in a file geodatabase, leveraging the state’s investment in ESRI GIS software and allowing MDIFW biologists to QC and edit records through ArcGIS Online, which also renders the portal maps. The portal also captures each volunteer’s time and mileage for matching federal funds. The programs are modular within the portal framework, so we can add new ones as needed.

AUTHORS: Steve Gomez, Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department

ABSTRACT. In 2015, the Vermont Fish & Wildlife Department launched a voluntary Habitat Stamp to raise funds for habitat conservation. Modeled after the success of the Federal Duck Stamp, the Habitat Stamp is our attempt to broaden our base of support for conservation funding, and to give non-consumptive users an avenue to financially support the work of the department by purchasing an alternative to a hunting or fishing license. The stamp has seen some success in the first three years since its launch, with several hundred thousand dollars raised, allowing the department to hire additional staff to work on habitat management and to put funds directly towards the purchase of state wildlife management areas. But it has also not broadened the funding tent as much as we were hoping, with over 90 percent of the program income coming from hunters and anglers who purchase the stamp as an add-on to their license. We’ll discuss our approach to the Vermont Habitat Stamp, the program’s successes and failures, and where we hope to take it in the future.

AUTHORS: Michale Glennon, Wildlife Conservation Society; Steven Fuller, US Fish and Wildlife Service

ABSTRACT. Conservation agencies and organizations have limited time and money to invest in protecting natural resources that wildlife and people depend upon. Guidance grounded in science and supported through regional collaboration allows more efficient use of limited resources in the face of complex environmental threats. The North Atlantic Landscape Conservation Cooperative (LCC) and the Northeast Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (NEAFWA) coordinated a team of partners from 13 states, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, nongovernmental organizations, and universities, who worked for more than a year to develop a regional conservation design that provides a foundation for unified conservation action from Maine to Virginia. Called Nature’s Network, the design identifies a network of places that help define the highest conservation priorities in the region to sustain natural resources and benefits for future generations. Nature’s Network offers a practical set of tools that can help people working at different scales contribute to regional conservation goals while also meeting goals of their own organizations. Ecological connectivity is an increasing focus of numerous conservation organizations, land trusts, and regional conservation partnerships. Nature’s Network offers several connectivity datasets created via a number of modeling approaches and representing connectivity at multiple scales. These and all Nature’s Network data and tools are freely available at naturesnetwork.org. We will describe ecological connectivity tools available and demonstrate the ways in which large and small organizations might use them to advance their conservation goals in the Northeast region.