Designing A Future For Arkansas Wildlife

Congress allocates funding annually for bird, wildlife and habitat conservation programs in this country through its State Wildlife Grant program. Each state is responsible for implementing its own plans and management strategies for effective wildlife conservation based on its Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy.

States use these funds in a variety of creative and cost-effective ways to stop the decline of species. For example, some states have initiated programs to identify Important Bird Areas, and others have identified effective strategies to fight invasive species. Click here to see how Arkansas has used its state wildlife grants. To obtain an application for a grant under the State Wildlife Grant program, click here.

The need to protect many species has never been greater. For decades, federal funding has focused primarily on conservation of important game species, and those programs have been enormously successful. At the same time, the population of many non-game species – those species that are not hunted or fished - has fallen dramatically. The declines are due, in large part, to a lack of attention and resources to conserve these species.

The federal dollars needed now to protect or restore the populations of non-game wildlife is far greater than what would have been required to prevent their decline in the first place. Furthermore, thousands of species will continue to decline in the future unless Arkansas takes proactive efforts before they reach the endangered status.

The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission began receiving State Wildlife Grants (SWG) funding in October 2001. Since then the Commission has received the following SWG grants:

Federal FY	Amount
2001	$565,290
2002	$906,455
2003	$673,685
2004	$714,925
2005	$725,283
2006	$704,803
2007	$709,703
2008	$718,675
2009	$711,348
2010	$892,097
2011	$538,672
2012	$555,393

The Steering Committee was given the authority to prioritize and approve projects for State Wildlife Grants funding until October 2005 when the Comprehensive Wildlife Conservation Strategy was submitted. New project approval guidelines have been developed based on the strategy will be developed for the 2007 round of State Wildlife Grants. Click on the links below to see guidelines for grants approval and lists of approved projects.

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