Wisconsin's Wildlife Action Plan

Project Leaders from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Ecological Services, Fisheries, and National Wildlife Refuges offices in Wisconsin spent a day at Necedah NWR with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resource’s (DNR) Bureau of Endangered Resources Director Signe Holtz, Lakes and Wetlands Section Chief Jeffrey Bode, DNR Regional Ecologists, and other DNR biologists, developing a coordination strategy for implementing Wisconsin’s Wildlife Action Plan.

Tara Bergeson, Wisconsin’s Wildlife Action Plan Implementation Coordinator, provided a historical overview of the development of the plan, described recent updates in making the information in the plan searchable via a new web interface, and gave an overview of the next steps DNR is taking to communicate about plan priorities with external partners, integrate the plan with internal DNR activities, and develop a strategy for updating the plan and tracking results as the plan is implemented.

The DNR Wildlife Action Plan is designed to identify key linkages between Species of Greatest Conservation Need, Wisconsin’s Ecological Landscapes, and Natural Communities. The plan describes threats and needed conservation actions for the species of greatest conservation need. The DNR will update the plan by identifying priority conservation actions that benefit multiple species, and will use those priorities in allocating the State Wildlife Grant funds. To implement the plan, the DNR has hired a Regional Ecologist position in each DNR region. The FWS Project Leaders described their station priorities, and how the Wildlife Action Plan has provided useful information to guide those activities.

The DNR and FWS jointly identified the following ways in which we can work together to implement the Wildlife Action Plan priorities. The FWS will provide assistance in generating maps and conservation actions for invertebrate species of federal interest, including Higgins’ eye pearlymussel, the winged mapleleaf, sheepnose, and spectaclecase mussels, the Karner blue butterfly and the Hine’s emerald dragonfly. The FWS will coordinate efforts to work across State lines and integrate efforts with the Action Plans of neighboring States, for example, through the Midwest Driftless Area Restoration Effort. The FWS will also work with DNR on monitoring the status of priority species, and by sharing reports with the State as we implement conservation actions identified in Wisconsin’s plan.

The DNR will identify geographic priority areas for plan implementation. In the initial analysis, Big Rivers has emerged as an area where many State priorities overlap. The DNR has established a conservation priorities process group, which will identify priorities among geographic areas that are important for multiple species, as well as frequently identified conservation actions. This priority process group will invite input from external partners, including the Fish and Wildlife Service.