State Forest and Wildlife Plans Focus of Latest RFP

The U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities (the Endowment) today released a Request for Proposals (RFP) entitled:  “Coordinating State Forest Action Plans (State Forest Resource Assessments) and State Wildlife Action Plans:  A Pilot Approach for the South.”   “The goal of this project is to enhance coordination and cooperation within and between states with regard to related plans, and to increase the effectiveness of on-the-ground conservation outcomes,” said Peter Stangel, Senior Vice President of the Endowment.  Partners in this project include the Southern Group of State Foresters, the Southeastern Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies, the USDA Forest Service Southern Region, and the Southeast Region of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.  “The project will be owned-by, and for the benefit of, the respective state agencies with an overarching goal of better marshalling and deploying limited resources to achieve shared priority objectives,” Stangel continued.  By demonstrating the benefits of collaboration the partners anticipate that the process will usher in a new era of cooperation between state forestry and state wildlife agencies, and could lead to additional resources and/or better direction of limited funds to meet priority needs.  States included in the pilot are:  Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Missouri, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia.  The RFP opens immediately and will close on September 15, 2011.