Conserving the Future Overview
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This presentation can be used to provide an overview of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's new vision for the National Wildlife Refuge System. You can download a fact sheet and additional resources at http://americaswildlife.org/extras/fact-sheets/.
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Conserving the Future Overview
- 3. Overview
- 4. Overview
- 5. We need you. Which challenges will you accept? Which future will you make?
- 6. How We Got Here
- 11. Implementation Go online. Download a copy. Join the social network. www.AmericasWildlife.org/vision
- 18. Leading Conservation into the Future
- 23. Discover your own vision Find inspiration Be heard www.YouTube.com/americaswildlife www.AmericasWildlife.org www.facebook.com/americaswildlife www.twitter.com/americaswild
- 24. Open Discussion How do you want to be involved in implementation? What future do you want for wildlife?
Editor's Notes
- [Backdrop slide for before the presentation begins.]
- [Thank everyone for the opportunity to be there. Provide any introductions or other housekeeping announcements that are appropriate.] [Feel free to use this slide to provide an agenda or overview of the presentation is that works for the format and style of your presentation.]
- -We’ve come together today to discuss the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s bold, new vision for the National Wildlife Refuge System – Conserving the Future: Wildlife Refuges and the Next Generation . -We all here share a belief that we can change the world and conserve the future of America’s wildlife and our planet for generations to come – despite all of the challenges we face. -In order to do that, we need a vision. We knew that we had to reach out and continue to work with others to chart a shared vision for the future of the Refuge System.
- -The Conserving the Future vision is built on the foundation and inspiration of Fulfilling the Promise – the vision for the Refuge System during an unprecedented time of success for the system starting in the late 1990’s and into the first part of this century. [CLICK] -This document is not a “cookbook” with all the details identified for you but instead lays out the big picture, giving you the opportunity to determine what this new vision means for you and your community.
- -We need your innovation and heart to make this vision a reality. -Which challenges will you accept, and which future will you make?
- -The document is the culmination of more than 18 months of conversation, deliberation and unprecedented online discussion about the future course of the Refuge System. -Its development involved not only Fish and Wildlife Service employees, but also Refuge System Friends, non-governmental organizations, tribes, state wildlife agencies, sportsmen, and the nation’s broad conservation community.
- -The document’s content came from five Core Teams, staffed by about 70 personnel from every facet of the Fish and Wildlife Service, the more than 1,100 people who attended the Conserving the Future conference in mid-July, 2011 in Madison, Wisconsin, and the thousands of people across the country who participated by coming to the website tens of thousands of times.
- -In finalizing the vision, the Refuge System considered more than 10,000 comments and welcomed more than 2,300 members to a social network built into a website at AmericasWildlife.org . Over 240 bold ideas were aired on an online forum never before used in the Service. -Never before have we seen the massive conservation conversation that Conserving the Future engendered.
- -The final vision, released on October 20, 2011, has 24 individual recommendations. -The Conserving the Future vision has several strong themes: the need for strategic, collaborative, science-based landscape conservation; effective public outreach, education and environmental awareness; a goal of making the Service’s workforce more closely reflect the nation’s diversity; and a priority of reaching urban America as never before. -An Executive Implementation Council – composed of the leadership of the Refuge System – has been charged with completing a general implementation plan by January 20, 2012, 90 days after the vision’s October 20 release. -The vision charter, signed at the Conserving the Future conference, calls for implementation of most of the 24 recommendations in the next five years, although the vision will guide the Refuge System for the next decade.
- -Implementation planning has already begun. Nine implementation teams have been formed in the areas of strategic growth; urban wildlife refuge initiative; leadership; planning; scientific excellence; community partnerships; hunting, fishing, and outdoor recreation; and interpretation and education. -Each team has about a dozen Service employees and are empowered to reach out to other employees, Friends organizations, partners, and subject matters experts. The teams will develop the policies and actions we need to make the vision a reality. The teams are expected to complete their work in the spring of 2012.
- -The Conserving the Future vision is available online at www.AmericasWildlife.org/vision . Copies of the document are being mailed to every Service field station and every employee in the Refuge System in January 2012.
- -Conserving the Future underscores the importance of building and expanding partnerships – working with other federal agencies, states, tribes, conservation organizations and citizens. -The vision is organized into three primary chapters: wildlife and wildlands ; a connected conservation constituency , and leading conservation into the future .
- -Among its 24 recommendations are: • Plan for strategic growth of the Refuge System. • Launch an urban refuge initiative. • Create a strategy to increase quality hunting and fishing opportunities – especially for youth and people with disabilities. • Enhance inventory and monitoring of Refuge System resources. • Create a climate change strategy for the Refuge System.
- Chapter 1 – called Wildlife and Wildlands – contains the foundational elements of our conservation design and delivery.
- -Among its 10 recommendations are: -Under take a top-to-bottom assessment of all Refuge System land protection projects in the full knowledge that the Service’s land protection strategies must be cutting edge and visionary and placing wildlife refuges in the context of landscape conservation. -Develop a clear research agenda that is management-oriented and grounded in the testing of assumptions, with the explicit purpose of reducing uncertainty in planning and management decisions. -Institutionalize a nationally coordinated effort to inventory and monitor wildlife and habitats so that we have data to inform our planning and management decision. Along with such a national effort, the vision document calls for a state-of-the-art data management system that can be integrated with the broader scientific community and key partners.
- -Chapter 2 – called Connected Conservation Constituency – contains another 10 recommendations.
- -Among the broad concepts are: - Public Stewardship that cultivates and nurtures Friends groups and community partnerships as well as a more self-sustaining volunteer corps. Ultimately, we need to create new opportunities for community involvement. - An Urban Refuge Initiative that identifies excellence in our existing urban refuges and takes those programs that work to create a refuge presence in 10 demographically and geographically varied cities across America by 2015. - A strategic communications plan that allows us to educate the public about our mission and accomplishments and create a positive, professional brand for the Refuge System. That means we need to use web-based and other emerging technologies to inspire and educate. - To ensure that refuges are welcoming, safe and accessible, the vision not only calls for an assessment of our law enforcement capabilities. It also seeks greater partnerships with state agencies and others – including businesses – and an update of relevant policies and infrastructure to enhance appropriate recreation on refuges. -We will also work to develop interpretation and environmental education strategies that take advantage of multiple modes of delivering messages to reach diverse audiences.
- Chapter 3 – the shortest section – is no less important. Titled Leading Conservation into the Future , it recognizes that the Service needs leaders who can embrace change and innovation, anticipate opportunities, and take calculated risks.
- -To enhance that kind of leadership, the chapter has just four recommendations, including: -Organizing an evaluation team – composed of Service and Refuge System leaders – that can identify opportunities for organizational realignments or programmatic efficiencies. -Within a decade, make the Service’s workforce match the diversity in the civilian labor force.
- -The Conserving the Future vision was born in the knowledge that the conservation landscape – and the stakes – have changed. The scale of issues and challenges we face is unprecedented and no single entity has the resources to address such challenges on its own. Strategic and collaborative landscape conservation is the only path forward to conserve America’s wildlife and wild places.
- -Conserving the Future is one more chapter in the story of the National Wildlife Refuge System, and we are all actors in that continued narrative. -In its final pages, the vision document says, “Now this story compels you to add your own chapter and take your place among a long line of conservation heroes.”
- -Why do we care? We care about this vision because we share a love for wildlife and wild places, and we must work together to protect and conserve them for future generations. -How do we move forward? This vision gives us a set of shared priorities to focus on. We will be more successful if we work together and strategically. -The implementation process we’ve designed will ensure that we move forward methodically on realizing this vision.
- -There is an opportunity here for you, and here’s how you can get started: [CLICK] - Discover your own vision – In the pages of Conserving the Future are broad ideas and some specific directions for the future of the Refuge System. Read them and think critically about what they mean for you and your community. [CLICK] - Find inspiration – Relive the experience of the Conserving the Future conference in Madison by watching video highlights on YouTube at www.youtube.com/americaswildlife . Find interesting speakers and thinkers on conservation and other issues, and incorporate what they offer into how you think about your role in our shared future. [CLICK] - Be heard – Let us know what you think and what your community is doing to help implement Conserving the Future . Join the social network online at www.AmericasWildlife.org and any of the groups that we h ave created for the implementation teams. Follow our social media profiles on Facebook ( www.facebook.com/americaswildlife ) and Twitter ( www.twit ter.com/americaswild ) to stay inf ormed, or use them to share you story.
- -At this point, we’ve addressed why this vision is important, how we got here, a summary of the vision, and where we’re going with implementation. [Consider having an open discussion amongst participants. Some discussion questions to use to prompt discussion: -What are the challenges highlighted in the vision that are particularly relevant for me? -What future do I want to create for wildlife refuges and my community? -How do I want to be involved in the larger process? -What three recommendations in the vision document most apply to my personal vision for the future of the Refuge System? -What actions am I going to take to help realize those three recommendations? Feel free to share the outcomes of your discussion through the social media options available on our website at www.AmericasWildlife.org .]
- -Thank you so much for the opportunity to come here and listen, share, and discuss the Conserving the Future vision. -Ask yourself, “What challenges will you accept, and which future will you make?”
- [Backdrop slide for after the presentation is over.]