Welcome to the second “Fish E News.”Since so many exciting things are continually changing with the Service’s Fisheries Program Strategic Planning Process, we thought it was important to give you an update. Five items are covered in this issue 1) Fisheries Strategic Plan Update, 2) “March Madness” Sneak Peak 3) Fisheries Program Budget Update, 4) Fisheries Program Evaluation, and 5) Closer Link to Refuges. Continue to forward this E News to partners or anyone else that might be interested in hearing about the wonderful things happening in our program. We welcome your comments about the newsletter and if you have relevant information to include please let us know
Mamie Parker, Assistant Director
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Congratulations! All regions met the deadline of October 31 and submitted Regional Strategic Plans. The Regional Fisheries Programs have done a wonderful job pulling their Strategic Plans together with extensive help and advice from States, Tribes and other partners. Now we have to roll-up the information into a National Strategic Plan. A writing group was assembled at the ARD meeting in Minneapolis to roll-up all the Regional Plans into a National Strategic Plan. The writing group has a representative from every region. After the writing group develops a draft National Plan, internal fisheries employees will be asked to review and make any final edits. The next step is to have the Division of Fish & Wildlife Management Assistance review the plan to make sure there are not any glaring errors. Once any errors are fixed, the plan will be sent to the Sportfishing and Boating Partnership Council. Then the plan is off to OMB for approval.
“It has been a long,
challenging road. We have all put in lots of hard work—it will pay off.”
Hannibal Bolton, Chief, Division of Fish and Wildlife Management Assistance
The current working schedule is as follows:
- December 1, 2003:The “roll-up” of the Regional Plans into the National Fisheries Program Strategic Plan will be complete and we will send it to internal fisheries staff for review
- December:Plan will be reviewed by the Sportfishing and Boating Partnership Council (SFBPC) Fisheries Steering Committee
- January:Plan will be reviewed by the Partnership Council itself
- March 1, 2004:Final Plan revisions will be complete
- March-April:Promote and celebrate fisheries during “March Madness”
See our updated website at http://fisheries.fws.gov/CAF/index.htm for more detail.
The National Strategic Plan is nearly complete and now we are developing communication strategies to promote our accomplishments. The Fisheries Communications Team has made considerable progress with the development of an outreach plan. The team includes several Regional ARDs for Fisheries and External Affairs, along with Washington Office (WO) Fisheries and External Affairs staff, assisted by communications experts at D.J. Case & Associates.
Our outreach and communications efforts will focus on promoting our accomplishments, showcasing what we are going to do in the future and the ecological, social and economic benefits of the fisheries resource. The internal working name for the effort is “March Madness”.The target audiences for the communications effort include our broad range of partners, the media, officials in Congress and the Administration. Keep in mind that we are still in the developmental stage so much of this could change.
A date is set for another Communications Summit to finalize these communications plans. Similar to the first Summit held in February of 2003, ARDs from Fisheries and External Affairs along with WO staff from both Fisheries and External Affairs will meet to finalize the details. The Summit will be held at the Sheraton Hotel in Denver, Colorado on December 1-2, 2003.
At the ARD meeting in Minneapolis we had discussions about how to communicate the plan. From these discussions we got great input. A series of discussions held between the Communications Team continued after the meeting in Minneapolis in order to have a plan ready to present at the Fisheries Communication Summit. Ideas tossed around include having an American Shad event, working with partners to make Hill visits, Fish Fry events, and much more.
“I want to celebrate the accomplishments of the fisheries
program. The only way to do that is to be flamboyant like the color red…nobody
forgets the color red.”
Dr. Mamie Parker, Assistant Director
The Bush Administration requested significant increases in the Fisheries Program budget for Fiscal Year 2004 to support its commitment to revitalize the Fisheries Program. Congress has passed an Interior Appropriations Bill that will have a positive impact on our fisheries conservation efforts. The President signed the bill essentially approving a $3 million increase for hatcheries and a $1 million dollar increase for hatchery maintenance. Congress approved an increase of $1 million to address aquatic nuisance species. The bill includes several other additions to the Fisheries Program appropriations, including $2 million for fish passage restoration and $3 million for fish screens in WA, OR, ID, and MT. Congress added $2.8 million for implementation of the Yukon River Salmon Agreement with Canada, $1.4 million for Great Lakes needs, and funds for a number of other important fisheries conservation projects across the country as well.
For details on the Interior Appropriations
Bill, see:
http://thomas.loc.gov/home/approp/app04.html
Complimenting the Fisheries Program’s Strategic Planning activities is the need for regular, independent Program evaluation. Such reviews will assist the Program in meeting its obligations to the resource, partners, and stakeholders. The Office of Management and Budget requires these evaluations.
On November 14, 2003, Fisheries Program staff met with representatives from the Sportfishing and Boating Partnership Council (SFBPC) to discuss development of protocols and criteria for independent and regular reviews of the Fisheries Program.A SFBPC working group will be identified and meet during the December 2003 – January 2004 period to review available information and to draft the protocols. It is anticipated that the processes will be reviewed and approved by the full SFBPC in April 2004, with a complete Fisheries Program evaluation to be performed during January – March 2005.
For additional information on the evaluation initiative, contact Joe Moran at (703) 358-1715.
The Fisheries and Habitat Conservation Program and the National Wildlife Refuge System have identified 13 opportunities for expanded cooperation including the need to identify 10 new Fisheries Friends groups and development of a joint position paper elucidating how fisheries conservation will be augmented within the Refuge System. In a concept paper titled "Collaboration through Cooperation," the two programs stressed that there are already many examples of successful cooperation: conducting comprehensive fish and aquatic inventories, monitoring on refuges, developing joint Comprehensive Conservation Plans, and habitat and species management plans. But the concept paper acknowledges that more can be done, including co-location of positions and/or offices and exploring how to coordinate with Native American Tribes on fish and wildlife resource management issues. Stay tuned, as the programs evaluate items in the concept paper for potential implementation.
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