101: Measuring the Effectiveness of State Wildlife Grants: Developing a Performance Measures System for State and Federal Fish and Wildlife Agencies

Presenters

Mark Humpert, Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies
Nick Salafsky, Foundations of Success

Abstract

The State Wildlife Grants program is a major vehicle for funding implementation of Congressionally-mandated State Wildlife Action Plans across 56 US States and Territories. These plans are intended to prevent endangered species listings by stepping up conservation for more than 12,000 at-risk species. In this era of increasing budget scrutiny, it is imperative that State Fish and Wildlife Agencies demonstrate short-term performance to decision makers even though it may take decades to achieve results for even a single species (e.g., bald eagle). To this end, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies convened a working group that used the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation to develop a set of generic results chains, intermediate and long-term objectives, and performance measures for 13 of the most common actions funded by State Wildlife Grants. These measures were then extensively pilot tested, reviewed, and are being rolled out as part of Wildlife TRACS, a new information system being developed by the US Fish and Wildlife Service. The session will review the effectiveness measures, describe how measures are being built into ongoing business processes, and a general discussion about the implications for similar systems in other agencies.