What is Teaming with Wildlife?
Who is Teaming with Wildlife?
How Do We Benefit from the Wildlife Action Plan and Teaming with Wildlife?
Joining Teaming with Wildlife
State Wildlife Grants and Wildlife Action Plans: Cost-Effective Conservation
The Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan: Habitat-Based Wildlife Conservation
The History of Wildlife Conservation
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Teaming with Wildlife?
Teaming with Wildlife is a national coalition of more than 4,500 organizations working to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered by supporting increased state and federal funding for wildlife conservation. This coalition includes wildlife managers, conservationists, hunters and anglers, businesses, and many others who support the goal of restoring and conserving our nation's wildlife.
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Who is Teaming with Wildlife ?
The Wisconsin Wildlife Federation (WWF) is a nonprofit organization coordinating the Wisconsin’s Teaming with Wildlife Coalition. The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) is the state agency responsible for managing the states natural resources. WDNR is the agency that wrote and is implementing the Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan. These two entities, working in partnership with members of the state’s TWW coalition, are spearheading the effort to protect wildlife in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin TWW Coalition is comprised of over 213 organizations and businesses. These include land trusts, outdoor organizations, environmental policy organizations, conservation oganizations, sportsmen and women's groups, churches, tourism businesses and government agenceis.
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How Do We Benefit from the Wildlife Action Plan and Teaming with Wildlife?
Wisconsin, its wildlife, and its residents will all benefit from the Wildlife Action Plan.
Value to Wisconsin’s Wildlife:
As programs and projects are successfully implemented, fulfilling conservation needs identified in the Wildlife Action Plan, Wisconsin's wildlife will benefit in numerous ways:
The status of many species with declining populations will improve, making it unnecessary to include them on lists of State and federally threatened or endangered species.
There will be additional support for ongoing efforts to restore currently listed species and eventually remove them from these lists will improve probabilities of success.
Species presently considered common will benefit from the conservation of all of the varied habitats that cover Wisconsin’s diverse landscapes.
New information will be acquired and generated that will also improve conservation of these landscapes and associated wildlife.
Reducing the rate of occurrence of invasive species introductions and establishments, landscape fragmentation, habitat conversion and other broad-scale threats will benefit many species and landscapes.
Communication and cooperation between conservation partners will be improved, leading to more effective management of Wisconsin’s lands and waters, which will benefit the full diversity of the state's wildlife.
Value to Wisconsin’ Conservation Partners:
Teaming With Wildlife brings together conservation organizations, local land trusts, sportsmen’s clubs, businesses, and others to protect Wisconsin’s natural biodiversity. The coordination and exchange of information provided by this collaboration will be essential to the conservation of wildlife. Coordination will decrease redundancies between conservation partners and result in more effective and efficient conservation efforts. The TWW network provides additional information for land planners and managers to use in making informed decisions, regardless of the location or extent of the land or water they manage. TWW does not plan to provide operational objectives, but instead provides strategic goals on which operational plans can be based. The Wildlife Action Plan is another public resource that will give managers additional insight to help identify options and make decisions. Each interested partner working separately could only achieve limited success. By working together and pooling resources much more can be accomplished.
Value to State Agencies:
The WDNR manages the states natural resources. As a strategic guide, the Wildlife Action Plan is an invaluable resource for those efforts. It provides a baseline of wildlife conditions today and identifies actions needed for wise habitat management. The Teaming With Wildlife coalition can provide additional support for these state agencies’s efforts to manage habitat resources and protect wildlife.
Value to Wisconsin’s Residents, Visitors, and Future Generations:
The Wildlife Action Plan provides information that can be used by any individual to assist in making decisions about how to manage land and water in ways that will benefit wildlife. As this action plan is implemented, Wisconsin’s citizens and visitors will potentially benefit from: enhanced wildlife-related recreational activities and experiences such as bird watching, hunting and fishing; improved quality of life by having diverse and sustainable wildlife and habitats; and economic rewards associated with increased opportunities for nature tourism.
Implementation of this action plan will also help to ensure sound management of our ecosystems, resulting in healthy and functioning natural systems that provide ecologically and economically important services such as flood control, nutrient and contaminant processing, soil maintenance, and carbon sequestration.
The Wildlife Action Plan is expected to improve the allocation and use of Federal and State funds, and with the Teaming With Wildlife coalition’s support, additional funding is expected to be secured. Conservation and restoration of threatened and endangered species tends to be an expensive and controversial process. Actions recommended within the Action Plan can help reduce these costs to Wisconsin’s taxpayers by improving the status of species listed as threatened or endangered, assisting species in decline before they are listed, addressing potential threats before they become severe, and leveraging state dollars through partnerships with non-state entities.
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Joining Teaming with Wildlife
Joining Teaming with Wildlife is easy! Simply fill out and return the endorsement form. Forms can be faxed to 608-266-2925 or mailed to:
Susan Foote-Martin / ER6
Wisconsin Wildlife Federation
PO Box 7921
Madison WI 53707-7921
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State Wildlife Grants and Wildlife Action Plans: Cost-Effective Conservation
Five years ago, in order to invest in all wildlife species and not just game species, Congress passed the Conservation and Reinvestment Act that created the State Wildlife Grants Program. State Wildlife Grants provide federal money to every state for conservation efforts to prevent wildlife from becoming endangered. When species become endangered, it is costly and time-consuming to save their populations. The State Wildlife Grants aim to maintain wildlife populations at healthy and sustainable levels. With strong bipartisan support on Capitol Hill, this program has become the nation’s core program for wildlife conservation.
In order to make the best use of funds provided through the State Wildlife Grant Program, Congress charged each state and territory with developing a statewide wildlife action plan. These proactive plans will help conserve wildlife and vital natural areas before they become more rare and costly to protect. As our communities grow, the wildlife action plans will give us the ability to fulfill our responsibility to conserve wildlife and the lands and waters where they live for future generations.
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The Wisconsin Wildlife Action Plan: Habitat-Based Wildlife Conservation
Wisconsin’s Wildlife Action Plan emphasizes a habitat-based approach, linking key species to critical habitats that are essential for the survival of the species. By protecting wildlife by conserving their habitat, this approach will preserve the habitat areas for multiple purposes. The health and integrity of watersheds, forests, rivers, and lakes will be protected. Land will be preserved for outdoor recreation such as hiking and canoeing. Access to habitats will remain open to hunting and fishing. The plan identifies the distribution and abundance of key habitats around the state. And, wildlife will be provided with the habitat that they need to survive.
The Wildlife Action Plan highlights problems affecting key habitats and suggests conservation actions aimed at conserving and protecting them. It offers monitoring procedures to evaluate the effectiveness of proposed actions. Finally, it suggests actions to maintain and manage habitat areas so they remain healthy ecosystems.
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