Ask any of your employees about their current workload, and you will likely hear “I’ve got more on my plate than I can handle…” or “What am I currently doing that you want me to stop so that I can take on this new assignment?” We have all been there. It’s human nature for people to adopt a task for which they have an interest or passion, even if it’s not in their area of responsibility. And while the use of a strategic plan to set organizational goals and re-imagining an organizational structure to optimize supervisor to staff ratios can all contribute to increased efficiency and ultimately to long-term organizational success, these types of forward-thinking actions will undoubtedly founder if staff aren’t working within their area of responsibility. To ensure staff are working on the right tasks and with the right amount of effort, the Wildlife Management Institute often assists our partners in conducting a Core Function Analysis (CFA) of the positions and functions within their organization.

Virginia, Ohio, and Missouri have all begun work with the Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) and other partners to engage with broader constituencies to increase relevancy to their states’ residents. The Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies’ (AFWA) Blue Ribbon Panel on the future of fish and wildlife conservation recommended that state agencies seek ways to engage and serve broader constituencies as a way to broaden political and financial support. In response, WMI and AFWA coordinated development of strategies and tactics to overcome barriers to engaging broader constituencies that were compiled into the Fish and Wildlife Relevancy Roadmap. WMI then began working with six “pilot” states under a 2020 Multi-State Conservation Grant (MSCG) to implement the roadmap and launched a Conservation Relevancy Community of Practice website. The three new state projects expand these relevancy efforts.

State agencies have worked diligently over the last 60 years to restore wild turkey populations in North America. The success of these programs was remarkable, with population estimates reaching historic highs of about 6.7 million birds in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. However, the overall turkey population estimate across all of turkey range has dropped dramatically in recent years, causing concern among biologists and turkey enthusiasts alike.

Projected temperature and precipitation changes from climate change, along with habitat fragmentation and other effects of land use change threaten the long-term persistence of coquí frogs and other species on the island of Puerto Rico. The USGS North Carolina Cooperative Fish & Wildlife Research Unit (NC CRU) and Southeast Climate Adaptation Science Center (SE CASC) have supported research that models successful problem framing and the delivery of actionable science to help management agencies make informed climate adaptation decisions.