The chairman of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (NFHAP) Board sent out letters this past spring to the five pilot Fish Habitat Partnerships (FHPs), inviting each partnership to apply in the first round of approvals. 

The five pilot partnerships invited to apply were the Eastern Brook Trout Joint Venture (EBTJV), Driftless Area Restoration Effort (DARE), Southeast Aquatic Resources Partnership (SARP), Matanuska Susitna (MAT-SU) Salmon Conservation Partnership and Western Native Trout Initiative (WNTI). 

The DARE was one of four pilot partnerships that applied for formal recognition by the NFHAP Board, submitting its application August 17, 2007.  The coordinators of DARE worked with the NFHAP Board staff on their partnership application. The WNTI will be applying in the next round. 

FHPs like DARE have been identified as the primary work units of the National Fish Habitat Action Plan; equivalent to the joint ventures as work units of the North American Waterfowl Management Plan.  The above partnerships were named as pilots because they were established while the National Fish Habitat Action Plan (April 24, 2006) was under development and received funds designated for National Fish Habitat Initiative implementation from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in 2006 (NFHAP FHP guidance 2007).  

The pilot partnerships have been considered as models, setting examples and paving paths for future fish habitat partnerships.  The board plans to establish 12 or more Fish Habitat Partnerships throughout the United States by 2010.