President's Message
The day before the gavel was passed to me as the President of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies, I was sitting in the audience at our prestigious Annual Awards ceremony when Brad Hadley from the Missouri Department of Conservation, accepted the Conservation Law Enforcement Award. He said, “I feel privileged and honored to go to work every day. It’s not a job, but a life.”
It is a good life. But like life, we face tough times. Though the economy is showing some signs of recovery, we’re a long from being out of the woods and probably will be facing some difficult economic times for several years to come.
To move forward in addressing the many issues affecting fish and wildlife conservation—climate change, energy development, lead, fish and wildlife diseases, connecting people to nature, excise taxes, to name a few—we must work in partnerships whenever we can.
Increasingly, conservation success requires more effective cooperation between state fish and wildlife agencies, federal natural resource and land management agencies and our conservation and industry colleagues. Our accomplishments today are not done by individuals; they’re achieved through the relationships we foster in our home states and on Capitol Hill to advance favorable policy and funding.
As a result, the Association is able to leverage every dollar contributed by states with an additional four dollars attained from partners and other sources to promote our collective mission. The return on investment is four-fold for each state in terms of the hundreds of millions of federal conservation dollars safeguarded by the Association and provided to state agencies annually.
I attended my first AFWA meeting in 1981 and I would not be the Director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources if it weren’t for the relationships and knowledge that I gained from my involvement with the Association. It is certainly my privilege and honor to work with you in a profession where we exhibit a spirit of cooperation and share strong passions for the work we undertake. We may face uncertainty; but, I’m excited about the life of our Association. With your continued support and involvement in AFWA, we will accomplish things together that will make our lives even more enjoyable and better protect and enhance our natural resources.
John Frampton
President of the Association of Fish & Wildlife Agencies
Director of the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources
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