Overview: The United States Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) is formulating a Comprehensive Conservation Plan (CCP) for Salt Plains National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) that will serve as a management tool to be used by the Refuge staff and its partners in the overall conservation, development, and/or restoration of the ecosystem's natural resources.

Salt Plains NWR is located in Alfalfa County, Oklahoma, approximately 15 miles south of the Oklahoma/Kansas state line or approximately 35 miles northwest of Enid, Oklahoma, and is open to public access. The 32,030-acre Refuge is located at the confluence of several streams and rivers of the Salt Fork River drainage system. The terrain is flat and mostly open including 12,000-acres of salt flats and a 9,000-acre lake, the Great Salt Plains Lake. The region receives approximately 30 inches of precipitaion per year.

What is a CCP?

A CCP is a document that describes the desired future conditions of the Refuge, and specifies management actions to achieve Refuge goals and the mission of the National Wildlife Refuge System.

When Congress passed the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997, it required that all refuges have a CCP completed by 2012 and it provided the following legislative mandates to guide refuge management and planning:

The CCP will provide management direction to present and future Refuge Managers for the next 15 years. It will describe all management activities that occur on the Refuge and provide management goals, measureable objectives, and management actions or strategies designed to enhance, protect, and restore habitats for the benefit of wildlife. The most important principles of the act are to maintain biological integrity, diversity, and environmental health of the refuge and facilitate compatible wildlife-dependent recreation.

The CCP:

The CCP will outline refuge goals, objectives, and management strategies. It is a flexible, dynamic document that will be updated every 15 years. The CCP will provide broad management direction and guidance for the refuge, contingent upon future funding and resources. The accompanying environmental document, required by the National Environmental Policy Act, will describe the alternatives considered and their environmental effects. You will have an opportunity to review and comment on the draft CCP and environmental document when they are completed.

How is a CCP prepared?

In order to identify issues concerning the Salt Plains NWR, input is solicited from many sources including interested parties and general public. Information is also continually compiled by Salt Plains NWR to better understand plant and animal communities at the Refuge and adapt management strategies accordingly. Management activities to be reviewed include, but are not limited to:

What has been done to date?

To begin the CCP process, a comment period notification was published in the Federal Register in June 1998. A fact sheet was distributed at the Refuge headquarters and to interested parties in March 1999. The fact sheets, drafts, and other relevant information for public review have been available at the Refuge headquarters. The Service's contract representative, Research Management Consultants, Inc., compiled comments, issues, and other pertinent background information and developed a draft CCP. The planning process was not completed at that time due to staff changes and shifting work priorities. The results of that planning process are best summarized by the following Refuge goals that are supported by measureable objectives and specific implementation strategies:

Objectives with measureable outcomes will guide the refuge staff in a consistent direction toward the accomplishment of each goal. The major objectives of the CCP include the following:

Since several years have gone by since the project was initiated, we are currently in the process of updating Refuge information and revisiting issues and management objectives/strategies. As we continue the process of preparing the CCP, objectives and strategies may be modified as a result of new information and/or a broader understanding or knowledge of an issue.

Help up plan the future

Through this announcement, we are inviting interested individuals, agencies, organizations, and other stakeholders to express their concerns and share their visions for the Refuge. This is your opportunity to help us identify issues and strategies for accomplishing the goals and objectives of the Salt Plains NWR. Your comments and/or participation will be critical to the success of this planning effort. If you have issues, comments, or concerns that should be considered during development of management objectives, strategies, and alternative, please submit them in writing by January 15, 2004.

Public meetings may be provided based on public response to the draft CCP. If an open house is considered necessary, special mailings, newspaper articles, and announcements will inform interested parties of the current status of the project as well as the time and place of any meetings to be conducted. Any comments received from the public will be reviewed and considered throughout the CCP process.

Please feel free to contact us!

We are available to provide additional information about the Refuge history, goals, and accomplishments to date, and to answer any questions about the planning process. Feel free to call, write, e-mail, or come to see us.

We will keep all interested parties informed about the progress of the CCP. If you did not receive this notice through the mail and would like to be on our mailing list, or if you would like to be removed from the mailing list for this project, please let us know.