In the United States, state and federal governments have the legal trust authority and mandate to conserve wild, living resources for the benefit of people. This obligation, known as the "public trust doctrine," is the foundation of the nation's approach to wildlife conservation and the complex institution (e.g., fish and wildlife agencies, non-governmental wildlife conservation organizations, etc.) that has been created to support natural resource conservation. The public trust doctrine stands as both the reason and requirement placed on government to conserve all wildlife for all people ? including those of future generations.

A special session at the upcoming 78^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference is slated to explore this relationship between wildlife conservation and the public trust. Titled "Conserving Wildlife as if Public Trust Responsibilities Matter," this session, along with three other concurrent special sessions, will take place from 10:00 a.m. to noon on March 27, 2013 at the Crystal Gateway Marriott in Arlington, Virginia. The session is Co-Chaired by Daniel J. Decker of the Cornell University Human Dimensions Research Unit and Ann Forstchen of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

Fish and wildlife agencies exist to ensure that the wildlife "trust" is administered in a manner that yields benefits for current and future beneficiaries. While there is no single template for how states implement the public trust doctrine, the basic trust principles are codified in each state's case law, statutes or constitution. Consequently, a patchwork of success and progress toward conservation of all wildlife for all people has resulted from the variability in the states' focus and capacity to implement actions to broadly apply the principles of public trust.

The current conservation crisis posed by declining state fish and wildlife agency budgets, shrinking wildlife habitats, and increased human pressures on wildlife could likely be alleviated if more people became aware of the breadth of state responsibilities for wildlife and accepted the need for all beneficiaries of the trust to share the burden of managing its assets. The funding mechanisms that state agencies currently depend on create limitations for agency program diversification and expansion, and therefore their ability to be inclusive of all their trust beneficiaries. Many state agencies are increasing and improving their interactions with more and varied stakeholders, but the need exists for agencies to identify and connect with unengaged or disengaged stakeholders.

This session will explore how state wildlife agencies can further embrace public trust principles in order to remain relevant and viable as the primary entities for delivery of wildlife conservation in a rapidly changing ecological and sociocultural landscape.

In this special session,

• Laura Bies, Director of Government Affairs for The Wildlife Society, Kelly Samek, attorney with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and Dr. John Organ of the USFWS will discuss the legal aspects of the public trust doctrine, the variability of how the doctrine is practiced at the state and federal level, and share their perspectives on the consequences of that variability;
• Nick Wiley, Executive Director of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, will share his experience confronting the constraints to broadly serving all of their public trust beneficiaries and reflect on how the structure and support models of conservation agencies limit the delivery of public trust responsibilities;
• Virgil Moore, Director of Idaho Department of Fish and Game, will provide a state agency perspective on what it will realistically take for an agency to embrace and broadly apply public trust principles; and
• Ed Boggess, Director of Minnesota's Department of Natural Resources Division of Fish and Wildlife, will share lessons learned on how public trust principles can help agencies garner political and financial support from a broader set of beneficiaries of the public wildlife trust.


 

Attendees of this session will gain an understanding of the full sweep of responsibilities of a public trust agency in the U.S. and learn how the wildlife conservation institution can better serve all of the beneficiaries of the public wildlife trust now and in the future.

Learn more about the 78^th North American Wildlife and Natural Resources Conference.