In late August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's (FWS) Partners for Fish & Wildlife (Partners) program celebrated 25 years of supporting conservation on private lands, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The voluntary program has focused on developing cooperative, short-term conservation agreements that provide financial and technical assistance to private landowners. Since its beginning in 1987, the program's staff has worked with 44,000 landowners and more than 3,000 partner organizations to restore and enhance 9,200 miles of stream habitat, 1.26 million acres of wetlands and 3.24 million acres of upland habitat.

The vision behind the Partners for Fish & Wildlife program is based on the recognition that more than two-thirds of the United States is privately owned and that most wildlife species use private lands for all or part of their life cycle requiring a collaborative approach to conservation on these private lands. The Partners program seeks to accomplish this by developing strong relationships with private landowners through one-on-one communication.

In its 25 years, the Partners program has forged partnerships that have affected a broad range of habitat types focused on federal trust species: migratory birds, threatened and endangered species, inter-jurisdictional fish, certain marine mammals, and species of international concern. Projects include wetlands and grassland restoration, invasive species control, stream restoration and much more depending on regional conservation goals and objectives. Program accomplishments are quantifiably measured by "acres and miles" of habitat restored, or number of stream barriers removed, but there is an increasing effort to project the anticipated biological outcomes of the various projects.

The Partners program offers shorter-term restoration and enhancement agreements that provide direct financial and technical assistance, yet these efforts often lead to long-term conservation actions by landowners. For example, in the Prairie Pothole Region, strong landowner relationships developed by Partner biologists provide the opportunity to enroll millions of acres of wetland and grassland habitat into perpetual conservation easements.

Currently, the Partners program has more than 300 staff, including biologists in all 50 states, that focus on the program's major goals: 1) Conserve Habitat, 2) Broaden and Strengthen Partnerships, 3) Improve Information Sharing and Communication, 4) Enhance our Workforce and 5) Increase Accountability. In most cases, federal funding for Partners projects is leveraged four to one with outside funding sources. As a result, the program has had significant success during its 25-year history making it one of the most effective private lands conservation programs. (jas)