20th Anniversary Workshop and Conference
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
October 29-November 1, 2007
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Nearly 300 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff, regional directors, congressional staff and conservation partners gathered for the first time in over ten years to celebrate the 20th Anniversary of the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program. This three day workshop and celebration represented a milestone achievement for the Partners Program as participants gathered to interact, network and learn from the mix cooperative conservationists. An opening welcome from Director Dale Hall, Senator James Inhofe, and Congressman John Sullivan initiated the conference on an enlightening and motivational note. The following three days included a myriad of events such as: regional highlights, breakout sessions, partner presentations, awards ceremonies and regional meetings.
Established in 1987, the “Partners for Wildlife Program” started as a small collaborative effort that set out to restore waterfowl habitat on privately owned land in the Midwestern United States. Now known as the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, the Program has grown in size and scope and has gained national recognition as a vanguard in the new era of cooperative conservation. In its twenty years of operation, the Partners Program has developed more than 41,000 private landowner agreements, over 3,000 corporate partnerships, and the restoration and enhancement of over 800,000 wetland acres nationwide.
Today, the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program represents the Service’s premiere non-regulatory and voluntary habitat restoration program. The Partners Program emphasizes the Service mission, which is “working with others to conserve, protect and enhance fish, wildlife and plants and their native habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people.”