NFHAP Goals and Next Steps: A Facilitated Discussion

The National Fish Habitat Action Plan was approved in 2006, with specific milestones identified for 2010.  These objectives have been achieved.  Since 2006, a partnership of thousands of people and organizations has emerged to implement the Action Plan.  The partnership operates at national, regional, and local scales to focus conservation efforts on common priorities of diverse public and private partners.  Partners have organized 17 Fish Habitat Partnerships across the nation; made significant advances in the science of measuring condition of aquatic habitats; raised the profile of fish habitat conservation; and completed hundreds of on-the-ground, cost-shared projects. 

In 2011 the National Fish Habitat Board will update the Action Plan to reflect the enormous progress that has been made, and to set new objectives for 2015.  The Board has delegated a work group to draft new objectives with input from Fish Habitat Partnerships, State and Federal agencies, and the full range of other partners in the Action Plan. 

The Action Plan has served well to date as a blueprint for fish habitat conservation in the 21^st Century.  Revisions to the Plan will be only those needed to bring the document up to date.  All of the objectives will be replaced, and to the extent possible, new objectives will be specific, measurable, and time-bound. 

Participants in this symposium at the American Fisheries Society Annual Meeting will have the opportunity to read the draft objectives, and are invited to provide ideas, suggestions, and constructive criticism during a facilitated session at the end of the symposium.  The updated Action Plan will be considered for approval by the National Fish Habitat Board in October 2011.