Game and Fish seeks input on 2025 wildlife conservation plan
May 30—BISMARCK — The North Dakota Game and Fish Department
is taking public comment on the revision of its 2015 State Wildlife Action Plan
(SWAP), a process it is required to undertake every 10 years as part of an effort to conserve wildlife and habitats across the state.
According to Patrick Isakson, conservation supervisor for Game and Fish in Bismarck, the department developed its first SWAP document in 2005 to shed light on at-risk and potential at-risk species in North Dakota. While SWAP includes a "handful" of game species, including sharp-tailed grouse, canvasback, lesser scaup and northern pintail, "the vast majority are those nongame species that we don't hunt or fish in the state," Isakson said.
That includes grassland birds, shorebirds, terrestrial and aquatic invertebrates, insects, freshwater mussels, mammals, reptiles and amphibians that may be under threat. The ultimate goal of the plan is to prevent species from being listed for federal protection under the Endangered Species Act.
"The State Wildlife Action Plan is really a guiding document for our agency and our partners to identify the threats and conservation actions for at-risk species and their habitats," Isakson said.
Bruce Kreft, chief of the Game and Fish Department's Conservation and Communications Division, said the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) provides states with money to address rare and declining species, but state agencies in turn must develop a plan to address the species listed in the document.
Kreft talked about the required SWAP update on Tuesday, April 22, during the
Game and Fish Department's spring Advisory Board
meeting. Game and Fish is mandated to hold the meetings twice a year in each of the state's eight advisory board districts, and the meeting for District 7 was livestreamed from Game and Fish headquarters in Bismarck.
The FWS recently announced it is distributing more than $55 million to state fish and wildlife agencies through its State Wildlife Grant Program. North Dakota is receiving $552,727 for 2025, according to the FWS.
"The State Wildlife Grant Program supports conservation actions aimed at avoiding new federal listings of threatened and endangered species, recovering those species already listed and ensuring healthy populations of each state's top-priority fish and wildlife species for future generations," Paul Souza, acting director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, said in a statement. "We are pleased to be working with these partners to protect America's natural resources and wild places."
That's where the State Wildlife Action Plan comes into play, Isakson of Game and Fish said.
"One of the benefits of the state putting together a State Wildlife Action Plan is then, it's eligible for State Wildlife Grant money" from the FWS, Isakson said. "So, in order for us to spend that money on our species of greatest conservation need, we need to have the State Wildlife Action Plan in place to identify what we're going to do with it."
That allocation has ranged from about $450,000 to $550,000 annually over the last decade or so, he said.
"It's been a real stable funding source for our nongame species and one that really has done a lot of work in our state and furthered our information and knowledge," Isakson said. "We leverage (funding) with partner dollars, university dollars, NGO (nongovernmental organization) dollars and do research and habitat conservation with it."
Examples, he says, include a freshwater mussel study being conducted with Valley City State University, reptile and amphibian surveys underway with a researcher at North Dakota State University and looking at grassland bird habitat and how it relates to some of the at-risk species in the SWAP document.
"We've been fortunate over the last decade or so to add some expertise in both terrestrial insects and aquatic insects, so we really lean heavily into this plan on what effects those threats out there have on our invertebrate community," Isakson said. "So, there are a lot of new insects both aquatic and terrestrial, that are in our (updated) plan.
"That's where a lot of the species that we see being potentially listed and petitioned for listing under the Endangered Species Act are going — to those invertebrates."
As part of its first two State Wildlife Action Plans in 2005 and 2015, Game and Fish ranked "Species of Conservation Priority," Isakson says. Under the SWAP draft now up for public review, species are identified as "Species of Greatest Conservation Need" and "Species of Greatest Information Need," Isakson says.
"We don't rank them out anymore," he said. "We just have species that we have an idea of what the threats and actions are that we need to conserve them. And then those Species of Greatest Information Need are those that we really need to do some more investigating on. We have an idea that maybe there's some threats out there or their populations may be declining, but we need to lean into some of the research to identify those."
The 2025 SWAP draft includes 134 species of Greatest Conservation Need and 98 Species of Greatest Information Need in North Dakota, Isakson said. The first SWAP in 2005 identified about 100 species of concern, a number that increased to 115 species in the 2015 SWAP update, Kreft said during the April Advisory Board livestream.
"So, we're seeing that increase in the number of species that are rare and declining either regionally — throughout different states — or within the states," Kreft said.
The 152-page SWAP draft has eight elements, he said, including abundance, distribution, some of the threats and potential actions.
While the list of at-risk species has grown, species occasionally come off the list, as well, Isakson said. The river otter and the American marten, both of which were listed in the 2015 plan, are two examples, he said; the bald eagle also was removed from the list.
"Ultimately, we found out enough information to feel like they're not really at risk in our state," Isakson said.
In revising the 2025 SWAP as required, Game and Fish last September hosted a "SWAP Summit," which included about 60 members from the public and various conservation partners. North Dakota's SWAP is a collaborative effort between Game and Fish staff, species experts, partner conservation groups, and state, federal and local agencies.
"That's the second time we brought all of our partners and stakeholders together," Isakson said.
"We gave them an update on some of our thoughts from our internal work and then broke them out into groups based on the habitats they were interested in — or that they had experience in — and really dove into what those threats are."
Habitat loss is a concern, Isakson says; what benefits game species also benefits nongame species.
"That is the beauty of our plan, being habitat-based and habitat conservation-based, is if you keep it 'green side up,' if you keep the grass out there and keep the trees out there, it benefits all species in the state," Isakson said. "Both hunted (species) and those nongame species that we talk about more readily in this plan.
"Our plan focuses a lot on conserving native habitat — the native grass that's out there — and in some cases trying to rebuild some of that habitat."
Getting people to recognize the importance of all wildlife — and not just species targeted by hunters and anglers — can be a challenge, Isakson concedes.
"We always have work to do when it comes to talking about the importance of all wildlife in the state," he said. "The department is in charge of managing all wildlife in the state. A lot of people think about those game species and those species that they catch out there, but we've done work over the years to try and educate the public on the importance of all species and their habitats — and that is part of our plan here."
Game and Fish will take comments on the 2025 SWAP draft through June 30. After that, the department will develop a final draft for the Fish and Wildlife Service to approve.
"Once it's signed off on, we're good to go for another 10 years," Isakson said.
* To comment:
A draft of the
2025 State Wildlife Action Plan update
is available on the Game and Fish website at gf.nd.gov. Public comments are accepted through June 30.
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