State apportionments of federal aid through the Wildlife and Sport Fish Restoration (WSFR) program have increased monumentally over the last several years, largely due to the increased collection of excise taxes under the Pittman Robertson (PR) Act. This year, state apportionments for the WSFR Program exceeded $1.3 billion. As a result, states now have access to more PR funds than ever before. Conversely with this increase in funding, many states have experienced budget reductions, coupled with reductions in staffing, hiring freezes and/or logistical constraints that hamper their ability to address a range of high priority needs. Further, states are often hesitant to hire full-time staff based on what could be short-term funding. The Wildlife Management Institute (WMI) is strategically positioned to help states make the best use of WSFR funds by offering our long-established program of hiring contract staff and coordinating these contractors to do a wide range of land management and biological services.

A number of states currently have significant backlogs of land management activities. These include work such as boundary marking and inventory activities, habitat management plan development and implementation, timber sale coordination and administration, construction or maintenance projects, timber stand improvement activities, etc. WMI can support state fish and wildlife agency conservation efforts by identifying and managing contracts for land management projects. With our flexible program, WMI can help state agencies accomplish these important conservation projects and more while providing the states with a range of operational controls completely at their discretion.

Of fundamental importance to states, WMI is able to offset the 25 percent match requirement for PR funded projects by waiving a portion of our negotiated fee for contractual services. We currently use this approach to contract with foresters, biologists, wildlife technicians and logging operations contractors across the nation. Another equally important aspect of WMI's program for staffing and projects is that states retain complete supervisory control over contracted staff, and/or invoice approval for contracted projects (i.e. timber sales, timber sale administration, habitat management projects, non-commercial projects, etc.). In addition, WMI can accept timber sale revenues directly from consulting foresters and send those funds to the states either periodically or in a lump sum at the conclusion of the project, or alternatively, states can have revenue sent directly to them, depending on their needs.

The importance of getting quality conservation projects on the ground in a timely manner cannot be understated. If your state is experiencing a backlog of projects due to staffing or match restrictions, or the inability to hire additional staff due to cap restrictions, WMI likely has a program that will help you. For additional information, contact your WMI field representative: (Southeast Region) ? Jon Gassett, 502-330-9025, jgassett@wildlifemgt.org; (Northeast Region) ? Scot Williamson, 603-770-4494, wmisw@together.net; (Midwest Region) ? Pat Ruble, 740-966-0496, pruble@wildlifemgt.org; (Western Region) ? Chris Smith, 406-202-0003, csmithwmi@msn.net. (jg)