By Brent Lawrence

I’m a public affairs officer with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Pacific Regional office in Portland, Oregon.  I’m not good at math and had to use all my fingers and toes when adding for this blog.

Everyone who dreams about retirement knows that investing for the future is important. The same type of planning is required for the future of conservation.

For your retirement, let’s say you invested $28 in a stock in 1992. If that stock traded at the Dow Jones Average over the past 24 years (a 7.36% annual return), then you would have $154 in your pocket today.

But the numbers are much more impressive when investing in the “conservation fund.”

There were 28 adult western snowy plovers found in Oregon in 1992. But when you compound 24 years of hard work, dedication and investing in collaborative conservation, you’ll find that conservation fund has rocketed to 375 adult snowy plovers in Oregon.

That’s an average annual return of 11.42%, including a whopping 35% increase from 2015. Now that’s an investment with a big payoff! Had the Dow Jones performed this well, then your retirement fund would be worth 2.5 times as much today.  That’s smart investing. Let’s call it the original “nest egg.”

“The rebound in plover numbers that we have seen in Oregon is outstanding,” said Daniel Elbert, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Newport Field Office. “The situation was pretty bleak in 1993 when this population was listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. We had to act fast, but we also knew that we had to invest our efforts wisely over the long term. Investing in collaborative conservation has really snowballed, and we’re seeing the payoff.”

While traditional investors use stock brokers to help manage their money, the Service puts its faith in partners to prepare for conservation’s future.

The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and Oregon Parks and Recreation Department were among the Service’s numerous partners who invested in the future of the western snowy plover in Oregon. That investment came in various forms – money, time, research and monitoring.

“Without our partners leveraging their resources alongside ours – and often leading the way, we wouldn’t be at this point,” Elbert said. “In the world of conservation, few things happen when you stand alone. The snowy plover recovery program is a case study showing how successes compound when we continue to invest in the actions that matter most. The population is recovering at an accelerated rate, and I hope we can continue to maximize the growth potential.”

But the Service and its partners are a long way from retirement when it comes to fulfilling our mission. We’ll keep working with partners to invest in conservation and the future all across America.