The Northern Forest Woodcock Initiative (NFWI) has been selected as a recipient of the 2008 Secretary of the Interior's Cooperative Conservation Award, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The NFWI was one of 21 award recipients for 2008 and was nominated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS).

The Cooperative Conservation Award recognizes cooperative conservation achievements that involve collaborative activity among a diverse range of entities that may include federal, state, local and tribal governments, private for-profit and nonprofit institutions, other nongovernmental entities, and individuals.

The NFWI was created in 2004 to foster partner opportunities towards implementation of the American Woodcock Conservation Plan. The NFWI partnership uses an approach that highlights the importance of private landowners implementing woodcock-friendly practices on their land. The approach of the initiative is a linked set of strategies that includes development of best management practices (BMPs), establishment of woodcock habitat demonstration areas, monitoring of woodcock populations and outreach to private landowners.

Collaboration and cooperation have been the hallmark of NFWI. Critical start-up support was provided by the FWS, with three of its programs contributing equally, and the U. S. Geological Survey, which volunteered personnel to handle science and monitoring activities. Through a Fish and Wildlife Conservation Grant administered through the Agricultural Wildlife Conservation Center, the U.S. Natural Resource Conservation Service provided the link to develop better technical assistance tools for private landowners. Additional funding was provided by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation via the Wildlife
Conservation Society's Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund in recognition of the need to implement conservation actions of state wildlife action plans to support shrubland-dependent species of greatest conservation need. State fish and wildlife agencies provided critical direct and in-kind support and are leading the charge to implement BMPs on private land.

Notwithstanding the critical investment by federal and state agencies, it is the substantial involvement of private landowners in implementing BMPs, allowing demonstration area development, monitoring populations and documenting habitat management that has made the program a success. As one example of many, Vermont Electric Power Company provided in-kind personnel and equipment to accelerate development of a demonstration area on a national wildlife refuge.

NFWI's Cooperative Conservation Award will be presented by Secretary Kempthorne during a ceremony on April 22, 2008, in Washington, DC. For more information on NFWI, visit http://www.timberdoodle.org. (sjw)