Conservation Department’s new strategic plan focuses on Missouri’s next generation

The new plan focuses on maintaining the citizen involvement that created Missouri’s conservation program and has kept it vital.

JEFFERSON CITY-Missouri, which has been in the forefront of conservation innovation for 70 years, has a new strategic plan that officials say will carry the state’s conservation vision well into the 21st century. Titled "The Next Generation of Conservation," the document lays the foundation for action, with broad conservation goals, challenges and results to be achieved.

The Missouri Department of Conservation recently unveiled the strategic plan, which the Conservation Commission approved at its March meeting in Kirkwood.

"The Conservation Commission had asked for a new, long-range plan and the Conservation Department staff has responded with an excellent product," said Commission Chairman Lowell Mohler. "This plan is born of collaboration and input from conservation partners, concerned citizens and staff at all levels."

Conservation Department Director John Hoskins called the document "an active plan-not a plan to gather dust."

"Every organization needs a clear vision with clear objectives to achieve its goals. The Conservation Department is no exception. This agency strives to serve people, as well as forests, fish and wildlife. We have worked hard to make this a plan that addresses the needs of human communities as well as its natural communities."

"Conservation is not a destination that we are going to arrive at one day and we can sit down and relax after that," said Mohler. "It is a work in progress, a process of maintaining the wild and natural things we love. Even though we may have achieved many of the conservation goals that were set out 30 years ago, much still remains to be done."

The Next Generation of Conservation provides a framework for conservation action based on nine major goals.

CONSERVING PLANTS, ANIMALS AND THEIR HABITATS
Conservation officials say they will preserve and expand healthy, functioning natural communities while minimizing the effects of non-native species. Some examples of actions planned to achieve this goal include:
● Protecting and restoring 6,000 additional acres of prairie on public and private lands by 2025.
● Protecting and restoring 3,000 additional acres of forested wetlands on public and private land by 2025.
● Restoring healthy, sustainable populations that allow the removal of five species from the state endangered species list by 2015.
● Developing a web-based, interactive plan to deal with non-native plants and animals that threaten ecological and economic damage to Missouri.
● Establishing or expanding 40 natural areas in the Missouri Natural Areas System.
● Promoting partnerships between public and private conservation organizations in areas where restoration and management have the greatest potential to yield significant results.
● Continuing the production and stocking of fish, such as paddlefish and sturgeon, and other aquatic species whose populations are not able to survive naturally, due to changes in their habitat.

PROTECTING CLEAN AND HEALTHY WATERS
The agency wants to expand Missouri’s already burgeoning citizen involvement in conserving streams and waters. Actions contemplated in the plan include:
● Empowering more citizens to care for streams by providing information about stream protection and management techniques.
● Increasing the number of volunteer Stream Teams from 3,000 to 6,000.
● Developing a stream education program for Missouri schools by 2008.
● Completing tests of six new erosion-control methods on conservation areas by 2012 in order to provide more affordable and effective erosion-control options for landowners.
● Managing stream corridors on all conservation areas to serve as models for landowners.

PROMOTING HEALTHY TREES AND FORESTS
Agency planners intend to ensure the health of Missouri’s forests and urban trees on public and private land so they continue to provide wildlife habitat, recreation and forest products produced in ecologically responsible ways. Means to achieve these goals include:
● Monitoring diseases and insect threats.
● Maintaining fire-suppression efforts.
● Expanding partnerships with the forest products industry to promote sustainable practices and conservation training for timber industry workers.
● Providing technical support to at least 3,000 private forest owners annually.
● Providing at least $250,000 in cost-share assistance for private forest management annually.
● Increasing community forestry programs to improve urban tree health.
● Restoring formerly forested lands on conservation areas by 2030 to support wildlife that needs glades, savannas, woodlands and forests.

PRESERVING MISSOURI’S OUTDOOR RECREATION HERITAGE
The plan seeks to increase the availability and participation in recreational activities on conservation lands by:
● Increasing fishing opportunities close to home with fish stocking, assistance in managing community fishing waters and developing public fishing areas.
● Renovating the state’s oldest managed wetland areas by 2015.
● Supporting hunting as a recreational activity and a wildlife management tool with understandable regulations.
● Providing high-quality trout fishing through hatchery renovations that increase trout production.
● Introducing families to a wide range of outdoor recreational activities through a new Missouri Outdoor Families program by 2008.
● Encouraging and mentoring new hunters and anglers through youth seasons, kids fishing days, youth hunting workshops, beginning trapping clinics and other special events.
● Drawing Missourians outdoors by increasing opportunities for diverse outdoor activities using emerging technologies, such as global positioning units.
● Developing five new shooting ranges by 2012 in partnership with communities, colleges and other organizations.

TEACHING MISSOURIANS ABOUT FISH, FOREST AND WILDLIFE RESOURCES
To make conservation information easier to find and understand and ensure that people understand the benefits of healthy natural communities, the plan calls for:
● Creating an exciting new hands-on, school-based Learning Outdoors Program.
● Providing $500,000 in grants to help schools implement Learning Outdoors.
● Developing educational materials for 4-H, Scout, home school and after-school youth programs by 2010.
● Providing public information about conservation through radio, television, magazines, newspapers and the Internet.
● Supporting the training of more than 3,000 Master Naturalists by 2015, enabling them to take their knowledge back into their communities.
● Providing educational exhibits at nature centers, visitor centers, shooting ranges and outdoor education centers.
● Promoting understanding of the benefits of using native plants around homes, farms and commercial sites with Grow Native! Program partners.

SUPPORTING CONSERVATION IN OUR COMMUNITIES
This goal aims to enhance quality of life and provide economic benefits where people live through conservation partnerships by:
● Developing demonstrations of the use of conservation-friendly construction methods, green space, trails and wildlife viewing opportunities.
● Helping communities find programs and grants for community conservation projects.
● Helping individuals and communities control nuisance wildlife.
● Providing fisheries management and funding to develop fishing facilities at community-owned lakes.
● Supporting local fire departments with more than $350,000 annually for equipment, training and volunteer fire assistance programs.

HELPING PRIVATE LANDOWNERS ADVANCE CONSERVATION
To encourage citizens to include conservation in their land management, the plan calls for:
● Responding to 40,000 requests annually for information and assistance.
● Providing on-site technical advice to 6,000 landowners per year.
● Developing a guide by 2010 to help landowners understand and use conservation practices.
● Hosting field days, workshops and farm tours to demonstrate land management techniques.
● Helping landowners take advantage of cost-share programs.
● Conducting workshops to train private conservation contractors.

SERVING NATURE AND YOU ON CONSERVATION AREAS
To provide safe, high-quality outdoor experiences on conservation lands, the plan calls for:
● Providing restrooms, drinking water, security lighting, picnic tables, trails interpretive signs, enforcement patrols and paved parking lots at 10 conservation areas near urban areas by 2025.
● Hosting 16 Serving Nature and You events annually on conservation areas to demonstrate recreational opportunities.
● Expanding and renovate hiking and equestrian trails on 40 conservation areas by 2015.
● Establishing camping areas with drinking water, picnic tables, restrooms and trails on selected conservation areas by 2015.
● Providing an online Conservation Atlas to help Missourians find conservation areas.
● Providing areas accessible to Missourians of different ages and physical abilities.
● Managing conservation areas as models for natural-community conservation.

ACCOUNTING FOR DEPARTMENT OPERATIONS
To ensure accountability in its policies and actions, the Conservation Department’s new strategic plan calls for:
● Listening to Missourians in public meetings, one-on-one conversations, surveys, focus groups and through an ombudsman.
● Creating an annual report describing the agency’s activities, performance and budget.
● Retaining a professional work force and programs that reflect the demographics and interests of Missouri citizens.
● Continuously assessing policies and procedures to ensure efficient, work.

Hoskins said The Next Generation of Conservation is a blueprint for meeting Missouri’s conservation challenges for the foreseeable future. He noted that 70 years ago, Missourians were discontent with how their wild resources were being managed. Three-quarters of the state’s voters approved Amendment No. 4 to the state constitution, establishing the Conservation Department.

'The hunters and anglers who came up with this ‘Missouri Plan’ had a revolutionary vision of how forests, fish and wildlife ought to be managed,' said Hoskins. 'A generation later, voters amended the constitution again, this time to provide funding for conservation. They wanted to employ skilled and dedicated staff who would use scientific principles to guide policy decisions. Those were the cornerstones of the plan.'

He said The Next Generation of Conservation sets a new course for conservation in Missouri. "The long-term result will be a better future for our state’s forests, fish and wildlife and, most important, a better future for our state’s citizens.'

The Next Generation document is available at mdc.mo.gov/documents/about/nextgen.pdf.

-Jim Low-