Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies Report: The State Conservation Machine (2017)

The Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies (“Association”) has published a 2017 report titled:

The State Conservation Machine (“Report”)

Former Arkansas Game and Fish Commission Deputy Director Ricky Chastain is identified as providing information for the State of Arkansas.

The Report is described as providing the results of the surveys of the 50 state wildlife agencies (to assess their collective contributions to the unique system of conservation that exists in America today).

The Association describes the survey as providing a “national level of understanding of:

1. The state conservation land trust – land and waters managed or controlled by state wildlife agencies;

2. The state conservation intellectual talent – the professional human capacity that is performing wildlife conservation across the nation;

3. The state financial investment in conservation – the collective financial capacity of the state agencies.”

By way of summary, the Report notes that:

In total, the 50 state wildlife agencies own, manage, or administer wildlife conservation on more than 464 million acres of land, 167 million acres of lakes, reservoirs, wetlands and riparian areas. State wildlife agencies employ nearly 50,000 employees and leverage the efforts of 190,000 volunteers. Collectively, state agencies have 11,000 degreed wildlife biologists, 10,100 law enforcement officers, and nearly 6,000 employees with advanced degrees. Annually, state wildlife agencies contribute more than $5.6 billion to conservation through their collective annual budgets.

The Association states that understanding the logistical foundations of conservation sectors and their contributions is essential to any discussion of the future of conservation in America (including an understanding of the threats to these foundations).

The Report’s intent is stated to “help inform the national dialog on the future of wildlife conservation in America by quantifying the magnitude of the collective conservation effort put forth by state fish and wildlife agencies.”

Subjects addressed by the Report include:

• The conservation land trust
• The conservation intellectual talent
• Financial investment in conservation

The Association describes itself as representing North America’s fish and wildlife agencies to advance sound, science-based management and conservation of fish and wildlife and their habitats in the public interest. It represents its state agency members before both Congress and the Administration.

A copy of the Report can be downloaded here.