Missouri's Community Assistance Program: An Evolving Strategic Partnership Program

The Missouri Department of Conservation has been providing close-to-home fishing opportunities to communities throughout the state as part of its Community Assistance Program (CAP) since 1980.  CAP benefits our partners and the local communities by providing an extremely cost effective way of providing citizens with more and better fishing and boating opportunities.  The Department enters into agreements with cities, counties, state and federal agencies, businesses, foundations, schools and colleges to provide fisheries management at existing lakes and ponds, and to cooperatively develop and maintain facilities for anglers and boaters at lake and stream areas.  The Department currently maintains agreements with 119 partners for the cooperative management of 168 public lakes, 43 stream access areas, four lake access areas and 10 aquatic resource education ponds.  The talk will present a history of this evolving strategic partnership program, focusing on the evolution of the program within the Department, what responsibilities and obligations are included in the cooperative agreements, and how the Department works with its partners on this program.