Today's greatest conservation challenges are driven by forces that transcend political boundaries--global trade and investment; resource scarcity; fragmentation; species invasions; rising energy costs and the search for alternative energy sources; and climate change. At the same time, every state fish and wildlife agency is facing increasing public demands; urbanization; shrinking hunter and angler constituencies, and revenue base; and rising costs. In this challenging environment, conservation organizations must more effectively apply available resources to achieve the biggest bang for their buck (and waterfowl, and fish, and…). We won't be successful in the future simply by doing more or doing it faster. We also need to be smarter about how we invest our resource dollars. We must become more effective at ensuring that there is functional habitat at a landscape scale, or we will not be able to ensure the future of the nation's fish and wildlife resources.

At the Plenary Session, attendees learned about successful and promising approaches in landscape-level conservation and discovered how conservation strategies based on measurable population goals can help us target the right conservation actions, in the right places, and build an even greater record of success on the ground. Panel members addressed best practices, barriers and opportunities for collaboration. Can your agency afford not to expand its conservation vision beyond the boundaries?

Click on the links to download the presenters' presentations.