The National Wildlife Refuge Association's Beyond the Boundaries Program

The National Wildlife Refuge Association's Beyond the Boundaries Program helps refuges work in strategic collaboration with surrounding communities to advance landscape-level conservation efforts.

Why look "Beyond the Boundaries?"
By design, National Wildlife Refuges tend to be located where the biodiversity is highest, along waterways and river corridors, coastal marshes, grasslands and unique desert ecosystems. Many refuges were originally designated to protect critical biological “hotspots” or migratory stopovers, which were buffered by relatively compatible private lands, often agricultural or other rural working landscapes. Today, many of those landscapes are increasingly and intensively compromised by human impact – whether by development and fragmentation, resource extraction, water diversion, pollution, or recreational use. Simply stated: today, most refuges in the Lower 48 are too small to fully accomplish their conservation goals and objectives.
 
No refuge is an island – even the islands
In order for the National Wildlife Refuge System to achieve its wildlife conservation mission, it must look beyond refuge boundaries to surrounding ecosystems and communities. Only through proactive, collaborative, landscape-scale conservation and restoration strategies can the Refuge System effectively support Trust species and other native wildlife. This need only becomes more clear as we wrestle with the effects of a changing climate.  Recent studies show that climate change is already altering the ranges of many species of birds, insects and fish, making it increasingly difficult to adequately protect these species within the confines of our existing refuge system, and requiring large-scale adaptive management strategies.
 
Promoting a system of public and private conservation lands
Fortunately, there is an opportunity embedded in these challenges on our refuges. National wildlife refuges can play a central role as biodiversity anchors in an evolving system of public and private conservation lands that will accommodate species migration and adaptation. As a nation, we have already made an investment in our wildlife and habitat – now it is time to leverage the investment in order to generate even greater returns for both wildlife and people.
 
NWRA’s Beyond the Boundaries Program
NWRA’s Beyond the Boundaries Program seeks to help refuges and Friends groups to develop a leadership role to conserve refuge landscapes.  Every refuge faces challenges unique to its landscape, and so NWRA may play a different role in different places.  The basic elements of the program include:

1. Common Goals:  Identifying critical conservation needs, priorities and opportunities by working with refuge managers and partners and using science-based strategic plans such as refuge Comprehensive Conservation Plans, the National Fish Habitat Action Plan, Endangered Species spotlight plans, State Wildlife Action Plans and regional conservation plans to find overlapping interests;
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2. Vision: Creating a vision or work plan that aligns public and private partners with a broad spectrum of expertise to address highest priority issues;
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3. Land Conservation: Developing strategies to protect vulnerable refuge in-holdings and identifying important lands outside refuge boundaries for acquisition, conservation easements or other protections by partner organizations;
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4. Land Management: Enhancing land management on refuges by coordinating with adjacent public and private lands, and developing innovative public-private strategies for habitat restoration;
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5. Engaging the Public: Working with Friends Groups and others to build and expand constituencies for refuges through educational programs, outreach campaigns, and creative visitor services initiatives.
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6. Funding: Leveraging multiple sources of public and private funding to advance coordinated landscape-scale conservation initiatives, and forging public-private partnerships that will attract diverse sources of public and private funding to achieve greater goals
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Why NWRA?
The National Wildlife Refuge Association is an independent nonprofit that is dedicated to furthering the goals and objectives of the National Wildlife Refuge System, yet NWRA also retains the objectivity of an NGO.  NWRA often forms a bridge between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the NGO community.  Finally, because refuges attract such a diversity of supporters, from hunters and anglers to birders and hikers to ecologists, educators and engineers, NWRA represents a broad spectrum of interests and is well-positioned as a convener of many for the benefit of refuges – a role NWRA also plays in the policy arena with the Cooperative Alliance for Refuge Enhancement (CARE).

Current NWRA Beyond the Boundaries focus areas

 

-Southern Nevada

-Oregon Coast

-Florida

Coming Soon...

-Wisconsin

-Lower Mississippi

-Connecticut River

-Blackwater

-Bear River Watershed