How the Relevancy Roadmap was Made

In early 2018, Steve Williams and Tony Wasley, co-chairs of the Blue Ribbon Panel on Sustaining America’s Diverse Fish and Wildlife Resources Relevancy Working Group, asked staff from state and federal agencies, the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Wildlife Management Institute to help advance the Blue Ribbon Panel’s second recommendation. The group reviewed the literature on fish and wildlife agency organization and change and used an adaptation of the Open Standards for the Practice of Conservation as a process to develop theories of change to overcome obstacles to broader engagement. Drawing from the literature and personal experience, the group identified a draft list of 19 barriers to engaging and serving broader constituencies.

In July 2018, with support from the Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies and the Wildlife Management Institute, the group convened a meeting of several directors and representatives from state and federal agencies, and other conservation interests. At that meeting, participants refined the list of barriers and organized them into five categories: agency culture, agency capacity, constituent culture, constituent capacity, and political and legal constraints. The group established a coordinating team to carry out the work and prepared a resolution for state fish and wildlife agency directors to support the development of a Relevancy Roadmap.

Following approval of the resolution in September 2018, five strategy teams were organized, consisting of about a dozen individuals from state, provincial, and federal agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and business to help develop the elements of the Roadmap. The teams reviewed and refined the barriers and created results chains (theories of change) that included barriers, strategies, intermediate results (steps in the process), short-term and long-term outcomes, and tactics. The teams also compiled a list of case studies, practices, and actions that describe activities already underway by agencies to engage broader constituencies to complement descriptions of the tactics. More than 60 individuals reviewed the first draft of the Roadmap and provided comments that were incorporated into the draft Roadmap.