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The Nevada Fish and Wildlife Office’s Conservation Partnerships Program brings grants and tribal/landowner incentive programs together to uniquely and strategically meet listed species recovery objectives while developing positive, proactive partnerships with the private landowners and tribes of Nevada.  We’ve successfully blended the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program while leveraging funding from other Service programs such as the Private Stewardship Grants Program, Landowner Incentives Program, Tribal Grants Programs, Recovery, Federal Assistance, Migratory Bird Management, and Joint Venture habitat restoration programs to facilitate habitat restoration and listed species recovery state-wide.

Funding for projects administered by the Nevada Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program (NPFW) has grown from $30,000 in 2001, to more than $175,000 in 2005.  We were able to work with other project proponents to obtain more than $3 million from the Cooperative Endangered Species Conservation Grant Fund programs and more than $900,000 from other agencies such as the Natural Resources Conservation Service, Nevada Department of Wildlife, Nevada Division of Forestry, Nevada Division of State Lands, and The Nature Conservancy.  Through the short tenure of this program, we have restored and protected over 42 miles of riparian habitat, 2500 acres of seasonal and permanent wetlands, 6,500 acres of upland habitat, and 4.5 miles of fisheries in-stream habitat.

The NPFW has partnered with other Service programs (Ecological Services, Fisheries, and Refuges) to accomplish many important habitat restoration goals that also meet the recovery objectives of threatened and endangered species.  One example of this cross-program coordination success is Big Warm Springs Restoration project.   Railroad Valley springfish will be reintroduced at Big Warm Spring on the Duckwater Shoshone Tribe’s property as a result of securing funding to implement a $650,000 habitat restoration project within designated critical habitat.  In addition, we were able to negotiate a Safe Harbor Agreement with the Tribe that not only allows for reintroduction of the Railroad Valley springfish at Big Warm Spring but it meets the recovery criteria outlined in the Service’s Recovery Plan.

As this program expanded into Southern Nevada in 2006, we worked to restore 30 acres of habitat for the endemic Amargosa toad near the town of Beatty.  This program continues to grow by building more partnerships within and outside the Service.

We will continue to expand the Nevada’s Conservations Partnerships through a focused strategy to implement projects within the NPFW Amargosa River, Pahranagat Valley, Humboldt River and Carson/Walker Basin Initiative Areas.   These projects will benefit migratory birds and imperiled species and facilitate the recovery and restoration of high priority habitat for Lahontan cutthroat trout.