Federation News
Montana Teaming with Wildlife Coalition Receives National Award
The steering committee of the Montana Teaming with Wildlife Coalition recently received an award from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies (AFWA) for “Most Effective Coalition Core Group” of all the state TWW coalitions. The award was one of ten presented at the annual Teaming with Wildlife Coalition Summit held in Washington, D.C. in February.
Members of the core group drove more than 12,000 miles across Montana last year giving presentations to conservation organizations, elected officials and businesses on TWW, the federal State Wildlife Grant program and Montana’s Wildlife Action Plan. Because of this outreach the Montana TWW Coalition has grown from 47 to 109 members. The national TWW Coalition now boasts over 5,000 member organizations and businesses.
The AFWA-sponsored Summit is held each year to bring together leaders of the state TWW coalitions to learn from each other’s successes and about TWW’s efforts to increase support in Congress for the State Wildlife Grant program. This program provides funding to the state’s fish and wildlife agencies to implement their recently-completed Wildlife Action Plans. The grant program was initiated by Congress to help the states keep at-risk species from becoming endangered. Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks receives about $1.1 million annually and has received more than $6.1 million since the program’s inception in 2001.
Montana Wildlife Federation and Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks serve as co-chairs of the steering committee; other organizations include Montana Trout Unlimited, Montana Audubon, Montana Association of Land Trusts, National Wildlife Federation and Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership.
MWF’s work on TWW is funded by a grant from the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation. MWF is one of only five pilot state affiliates to receive the grant through the National Wildlife Federation.
For more information about the Montana Teaming with Wildlife Coalition and how your organization can help implement Montana’s Wildlife Action Plan, contact Rich Day at 406-546-9347 or go to the Montana TWW website.
