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The first annual Teaming With Wildlife Rally was held on Saturday, June 7, in Monsanto Auditorium of the Christopher S. Bond Life Sciences Center on the University of Missouri campus. More than 70 participants from 40 organizations and businesses took part in the day's events.
Participants gathered to learn about the latest developments in statewide efforts to protect all wildlife, fish and forestry resources via Missouri’s Comprehensive Wildlife Strategy. Project leaders from around the state highlighted partnership success stories and volunteer opportunities. A number of conservation funding sources were also explained by representatives of state and federal agencies and other groups.
One of the key funding sources for conservation that would not be possible without the strong support of the Teaming With Wildlife Coalition is the State Wildlife Grant program. Since 2001, Congress has appropriated nearly $550 million to the nationwide program, which is distributed to the states by a formula based on size and population. Missouri has received nearly $10 million during that period. Since State Wildlife Grants are an annual appropriation, funding could be cut or eliminated entirely each year, but because members of Congress hear from so many voices in the Teaming With Wildlife Coalition, support and funding for the program has been fairly consistent.
“There’s a lot to like about the Teaming With Wildlife approach,” said Justin Johnson, executive director of the Missouri Prairie Foundation and a member of the Missouri Teaming With Wildlife Steering Committee. “The funding is used to target local conservation priorities in a proactive, non-regulatory manner, and often times a private partner is involved and brings matching funds to the project. Over the years nearly every member of Missouri’s congressional delegation has endorsed increasing the funding level for State Wildlife Grants.”
Partnerships featured at Missouri’s Teaming With Wildlife Rally covered all corners of the state and a wide variety of habitats.
“From Audubon Missouri’s Wildcat Glade project in Joplin to Ducks Unlimited’s efforts at the confluence of the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers near St. Louis to the wonderful prairie grasslands conservation work being done by the Nature Conservancy and the Missouri Prairie Foundation, there is truly something for everyone under the Teaming umbrella,” said Gene Gardner, wildlife diversity chief of the Missouri Department of Conservation and a member of the Missouri Teaming With Wildlife Steering Committee.
  
Photos: Amy Buechler
The keynote speaker was David Waller of the Georgia Wildlife Federation.
Listen to David Waller (Georgia Wildlife Federation) kick-off Missouri's Teaming With Wildlife Rally (.mp3 file, 29.5 MB, runtime approx. 25 minutes). David gives a great history of the Teaming With Wildlife Coalition as well as insight on Georgia's Camo Coalition.
See an agenda of the day's events.
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