In the past decade, state fish and wildlife agencies (SFWAs) have been challenged to transform the way they strategically manage natural resources into the 21^st century. Given the growing threats facing conservation of fish and wildlife resources, there is little doubt that those agencies can play an essential, future leadership role in integrating the values, resources and perspectives of entities working collaboratively to address traditional and emerging conservation goals.

This challenge to transform SFWAs was articulated by academics and agency leaders, and formally addressed in a well-attended workshop at the 2010 North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference (NAWNRC) in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Following this workshop, participants requested more examples of how agencies were addressing the need for transformation. Thus, at the 2011 NAWNRC, a second workshop was held where SFWAs described their experiences working through transformative change (captured in a booklet titled Transformation of State Fish and Wildlife Agencies:? Ensuring the Future of Conservation in a Rapidly Changing World). In addition, workshop presenters provided instruction on adaptive leadership strategies needed by SFWAs in their transformation process.

Largely absent from the first two workshops were perspectives from the broader conservation community, which will remain key players in the future of North American wildlife management. Transforming the vision for the future of conservation will rely on potential collaborations and enduring partnerships that must involve NGOs (including those with wildlife-user, habitat-conservation, biodiversity and animal-welfare orientations), local governments (for community-based fish and wildlife management issues), individual and corporate private landowners (timber and energy industries, farmers, ranchers, etc.), and federal land-management agencies.

The third transformation workshop?"State Fish and Wildlife Agency Transformation: Perspectives from Outside the Tent"?will explore how these and other essential players in the resource management institution envision how they might contribute to an enduring wildlife on legacy. ?This workshop will take place at the 77^th NAWNRC in Atlanta, Georgia, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Tuesday, March 13, 2012. It will provide SFWA leaders with insights from "the outside looking in," and identify elements of a common vision for fish and wildlife conservation and an approach to future resource governance.

The full-day workshop will outline how conservation organizations and private sector entities, as well as local, state and federal governments, perceive the current and future state fish and wildlife management institution. Incorporating interactive discussions, presenters will provide the missing "outside" perspectives about their role in future resource conservation. Workshop participants will be encouraged to specify elements of their vision and challenged to answer the question: "Transformation of SFWAs into what?"? They will be given an opportunity to discuss changes that might be needed in the general governance model for conservation and to explore ways to make it more powerful and productive. Topical areas for discussion will include exploration of common goals, identification of feasible and perhaps preferred approaches to collaboration, and governance (and funding) implications.

Workshop coordinators are Cynthia Jacobson, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Daniel Decker, Cornell University, John Organ, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Chris Smith, Wildlife Management Institute. The workshop is being cosponsored by the Cornell University Human Dimensions Research Unit and the Wildlife Management Institute.