Cooperation Boosts
Accomplishments

Partnerships

By offering technical assistance and funds to private landowners, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) through its Partners for Fish and Wildlife program (PFW) works cooperatively with landowners and partners to restore fish and wildlife habitats.

Partnerships are one key for the Service to accomplish its mission: The mission of the Service is, by working with others, to conserve, protect and enhance fish and wildlife and their habitats for the continuing benefit of the American people. The PFW program accomplishes this mission through the technical and financial assistance it offers to private, nonfederal landowners who voluntarily restore wetlands and other fish and wildlife habitats on their lands. The PFW program emphasizes the reestablishment of wetlands, native vegetation and ecological communities for the benefit of fish and wildlife associated with the needs and desires of private landowners. A dollar-for-dollar cost-share, although not a program requirement, is sought on a project-by-project basis. Up to 100-percent funding for habitat restoration projects is available through the Service and its partners. Landowners agree to maintain the restored habitats for no less than 10 years, but otherwise retain full control of their lands.

Habitat Restoration

The PFW program evolved in the early 1970s from concerns about the loss of wetlands and low breeding populations of waterfowl. The PFW program today is restoring fish and wildlife habitats across ecosystems in all 50 states. Since 1987, the PFW program in Wisconsin has worked with more than 5,800 landowners to restore 12,700 acres of wetlands and 12,000 acres of native grasslands. The depth and diversity of the PFW program encompasses all of Wisconsin’s ecosystems: wetlands in the state’s glaciated regions; tallgrass prairies in the southwest; oak savannas in the central sands; and wild rice lakes of the north. The widely acclaimed PFW program is a positive, results-oriented approach to fish and wildlife conservation.